The Ocarina Project: Link's Awakening
by Fensta
Summary: Part One of a Major Novelization of 'Ocarina Of Time'. What if Navi wasn't there to guide Link through Hyrule? Watch as Link's friends help him discover Adventure, Friendship and even Love as he grows into the hero he was destined to become.
1. Kokiri Village

**Note:**

This work was previously known by the title **'The Deku Project: Link's Awakening'**, but due to confusion over the world in which this story takes place, the title was changed on the **17th of April, 2012 **to** 'The Ocarina Project: Link's Awakening'**. This is simply a change in the name, and no change in content or direction took place as a result. As no reposting took place, all reviews for the Deku Project have been inherited by the Ocarina Project. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Chris ~ a.k.a. 'Fensta'

* * *

><p><strong>The Ocarina Project:<strong>

A Navi-less Novelization of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in three parts: Link's Awakening, The Adventure of Link & The Legend of Zelda.

**Summary:**

A Novelization of OOT. Link is on his quest through Hyrule to defeat Ganondorf, but without Navi, he has to get the help of other companions along the way. Adventure, Friendship and even Love await: Watch as Link grows into the hero he was born to become.

* * *

><p><strong>'The Ocarina Project' – Part 1<strong>

_'Link's Awakening'_

* * *

><p>"And in the Forests ye will find Kokiri, the children of the forest. More innocent than any man or beast, more noble than any king. These are the beloved of the Goddesses, for they will never know the evils that corrupt, or the hardship of famine. And so will it be, as long as the Great Protectors of the Forests are in place. Long may they reign."<p>

_ The Book of Nayru, 2:21:9_

* * *

><p>It was a beautiful day in Kokiri Village.<p>

'Link, stop!'

Set deep in the Lost Forests of Eastern Hyrule, the sun was shining and just visible between the branches of the trees high above, dense with the greenery of the perpetual Kokiri springtime, the few clouds in the sky seemed content to be white and fluffy.

'This is stupid. You should just ignore him!'

Even the wind was in a good mood, playfully swirling leaves and dust around the dirt-tracks of the village in small spirals of air.

'Link! Is that a _real_ sword? Where did you get that!'

It seemed the entire world was in harmony. The entire world, that is, except a young boy by the name of 'Link'.

'Someone's got to stand up to him.' the boy said softly, grasping hold of the handle of the Kokiri Sword and wrenching it free of the sheath on his back. He gave it a couple of practice swings, eager to better learn control over the heavy weapon. Having only discovered its former hiding place a few days previously, he wasn't yet comfortable with the sword's bulk, which was easily twice as heavy as his favourite sharpened deku stick. He didn't think it would really matter though; Mido would take one look at the legendary sword and apologise on the spot.

At least, that was Link's current plan. He had tried not to think of what would happen if it didn't work.

At his shoulder, a Kokiri girl by the name of Saria was keeping pace with him, frantically trying to talk him out of it.

'I know you mean well...' she sighed. Her emerald green hair bobbed up and down on her shoulders as she jogged beside Link, unable to keep up with his longer strides by walking alone. 'You _always_ mean well, but nothing good can come of attacking him with a weapon. _Surely_ you know that.'

When Link didn't immediately respond, Saria went quiet, at a loss. In truth, she knew Mido had it coming to him, all the Kokiri did, but she hoped she'd never see it. The self-styled 'boss' of the Kokiri had always been quite mean and high-and-mighty, but recently he'd been been particularly bad, especially to Link. Then again, he was like this every year around the time of the first solstice. There were so many things to organise for the festival, and as much as everyone in Kokiri Village hated the way Mido did it, he always got things ready in time.

The Kokiri had come to accept over time that this was simply the way things were, but Link...

Well, Link had always been different. Despite the lack of a fairy, the hallmark of any self-respecting Kokiri, his height alone made his uniqueness painfully clear. In the past he had been the small one, not that being small amongst the Kokiri was particularly bad, but more recently Link had put on a growth spurt that launched him head and shoulders above all but the largest Kokiri. In a village who's habitants never grew and never aged, they had been shocked to witness someone who grew tall like the plants all around them. Whilst some regarded this change as little more than moderate diversion, there were others, like Mido, who found it intimidating. It was part of the reason that Mido had been pushing them so hard this year, in an attempt, Saria presumed, to try and hammer home to the Kokiri that Mido was still in control. All because Link was now taller than him.

The more Saria thought about it, the more she found it difficult to stir sympathy for Mido, but in her heart-of-hearts she knew that fighting wouldn't solve anything.

'_He_ challenged _me_.' Link growled eventually, his gaze never deviating from the path ahead, his cerulean orbs so intense that it seemed that he was trying to stare down Mido before he even came into view.

'Yes, I know.' she conceded. 'But that doesn't mean you have to accept. You never have before!'

Link shrugged. 'Before... was different. Before it was just me he was picking on, but now he's picking on you too, and I won't let him do that.'

Saria's heart softened slightly and she laid a hand on her friend's shoulder as it jumped up and down with his furious pace. His protectiveness was touching, but she would never ask for him to fight for her. If he thought about it, he would realise that this wasn't what she wanted, but Saria knew that once Link got like this, he wouldn't let it go until he felt things were 'fair' again.

The noble bloody idiot.

They entered the clearing outside of the Kokiri general store, where Mido was busy 'encouraging' the various Kokiri around to work faster by poking them with a meaty looking deku stick. It was the central hub of the festival, and in previous years they had set up a stage here for a band to play on. This year though, Mido had decided that they'd have two stages, one for the band, and the other for... well, no one was quite sure. Despite that, Mido had everyone working twice as hard to get both stages finished in time.

'Not like that!' Mido was saying loudly, poking a blond haired Kokiri by the name of Elya in the arm as she attempted to line up a heavy board for her twin sister to lash with rope. 'Lift it higher!' Alye watched on, frowning as her sister was shouted at, but didn't say anything for fear of being poked as well.

'Stop it, Mido!' Link called out. Mido didn't initially turn around, deciding to completely ignore the fairyless boy in favour of continuing with his 'work', but changed his mind when he noticed Alye's eyes bulge.

'I mean it!' Link continued, raising his left hand to point his new sword at the Kokiri.

Mido might have easily been the meanest Kokiri, but he was also the smartest, and therefore when he turned around to find a sword being pointed at him he quickly squashed the initial stab of fear, replacing it with the reasoning that Link, sweet, _innocent_ Link, would never actually attack him with it. Especially not in the middle of Kokiri Village with Saria watching on.

He quickly slapped on his most annoyed-looking face and sneered at the boy. 'Go away, Link. Can't you see that I'm working here? I'll play soldiers with you later, once you've returned that sword to whoever you stole it from.'

Mido's self satisfied smile fell slightly when this didn't elicit an emotional response from the usually emotionally volatile Link.

'No, Mido.' Link said calmly, 'Stop being mean, or I'll _make _you stop.'

Taken aback, Mido stared at the boy for a long while before speaking. 'What is it that you plan to do to me if I don't 'stop'? Wave that sword around in my face all day, pretending that you know how to use it?' he said, slightly annoyed with how squeaky his voice had become. 'And anyway, I'm not mean!'

Both Elya and Alye let out identical snorts, and even Saria's eyebrows rose slightly on her forehead, but Mido ignored them. He knew he wasn't mean, not really. They just didn't understand what he was trying to do, didn't see his grand vision of what things could be like. He'd tried explaining it, he really had, but in the end it was easier just to instruct people to do what he knew needed to be done, how it needed to be done. Mean? How dare they!

'This needs to stop, Mido.'

Mido's gaze snapped to Saria. He hadn't counted on Link having _her _support. After all, it was widely known that _he_, Mido, was her favourite, and not that snotty-nosed cry-baby outsider.

'Saria, my dear.' he said in his kindest voice, which unfortunately was also his most patronising, 'Can't you see how much still needs to be done?' he swept his arm dramatically around the clearing. 'The flower beds are a mess, the awning above the shop is filthy, not to mention the fact that the second stage hasn't even been started yet! And we've only got two more days before the festival!'

Saria crossed her arms defiantly. 'That's nonsense, Mido. The flowerbeds will look lovely once they flower, the awning above the shop is the cleanest I've _ever _seen it, and there's no reason to have a second stage at all. The entire festival takes place on the forest floor, where it should be. The only reason we have a stage for the band is that if we didn't, they'd just go climb trees to play in, which they'd invariably fall out of at some point, and you can't play instruments with broken limbs.'

It was a fair point. Ten years ago they had learned that lesson. The entire band, including all three know-it-all brothers, had taken to climbing into the branches of trees to ensure that everyone could hear them properly. Then, and in one of the more comedic legends of the Kokiri, once the band had settled on one massive tree limb, the entire thing cracked off, dropping them into Kokiri Pond. They hadn't broken anything, but the know-it-all brothers had been so mortified for choosing to sit on a rotten branch that they'd locked themselves in their house.

A week later, they'd come out with the designs for a stage, ensuring that no bands ever fell out of trees again. The idea had been enthusiastically taken up.

Still, there was no reason to have two stages – there was only ever one band.

Mido faltered, but only for a second. 'Well, I don't know! We might need to relocate at the last minute!' It was a terrible excuse for a second stage, and he knew it.

Saria didn't seem impressed. 'Look, Mido. The stage is something we set up every year. We _know_ how to do it without you here to show us. It's almost done anyway. Let the girls have the rest of the day off, let the know-it-all brothers sleep for Nayru's sake, and we can all help them finish it tomorrow. How does that sound?'

'What? And abandon making a second stage?'

'It's a dumb idea, Mido.' said Link, lowering his sword. 'Let it go.'

Mido blinked. What was happening? Did they seriously think he would do what they asked? He was the smart one, damn-it!

'Wha- No! Absolutely not!' he said eventually, a hint of hysteria in his voice, 'This is _my_ festival! _I_ know how it's meant to be! We're doing it _my_ way!'

Link stepped forward, his sword raised once more and pointed at Mido's chest. He'd meant to only intimidate the Kokiri, but the boy had taken it as an attack and had swung his deku stick at him. Before Link knew what he was doing, years of fighting forest creatures kicked in and he'd knocked the deku stick flying. Mido ended up on his back with Link's sword still pointed at his chest.

'Link...' Saira said softly, uncomfortable with the way things were turning out. She didn't think the boy would carry on attacking now that his foe was so clearly defeated, but she'd seen her friend fight before, and sometimes it was like he was in a world of his own. She placed a hand on his shoulder and felt the boy relax.

'This festival is for everybody, Mido.' Link said eventually, 'and we'll set it up the way 'we' want for a change.' he lowered the sword and stood back. 'Get some rest, Mido. You look exhausted.'

Mido looked up at Link with a dazed expression on his face. He wasn't used to being stood up to, and certainly wasn't used to being attacked. He was stunned, and more than a little frightened. Seeing Link step away and lower the sword, a sword he'd _stolen_ from the Kokiri, Mido saw his chance. Without a word to his attacker, he was up and running, where, he couldn't say. He would work it out later.

To Link, it seemed like Mido had gone mad. One minute he was looking up at him with a confused expression on his face, then he was gone, running into the forest as fast as his legs could carry him. Link almost ran after the Kokiri, if only to tell the boy not to be so stupid, but Saria's hand found its way onto his shoulder again, and it somehow anchored him in place. He could only watch as Mido ran off into the aptly-named Lost Forest. If it was any normal person, they would never be seen again, most likely turned into a Skull Child, but Mido was a capable Kokiri tracker, and would return.

At least. Link hoped that was the case.

* * *

><p>The day of the festival dawned bright and early, the sun's rays filtering down through the dense tree cover in shafts of orange known to the Kokiri as 'Din's Fingers'. Warm to the touch, it was as if the Goddess of Power herself were back amongst them. Fitting, considering this celebration was all about the birth of the world, the Kokiri, and the Lost Wood they called home.<p>

Link rose wearily. He hadn't had a particularly good night. This was partly because of excitement – the Solstice Festival was always one of the most enjoyable days of the year – and partly because it had been two days since Mido had been seen by anyone.

Link was under no illusions about if he liked the Kokiri or not, he didn't, but that didn't mean that he wasn't worried about him. After all, he _was _a Kokiri, and Kokiri always looked out for each other.

With a stretch, Link pushed himself out of bed. He supposed he best get to the market square and help with the last-minute jobs. Striding purposefully towards the door, he grabbed his new sword as an afterthought. Having all the Kokiri in one place always attracted attention from Deku Scrub and, Nayru forbid, Wolfos. He didn't want to have to run back to his house to get the sword if he needed it.

It wasn't a long walk to the market square, so Link took his time to enjoy the morning. It wasn't a real 'market square', he mused, not really. For a start, the only stall that ever set up there was the know-it-all brothers' lemonade stand, which sold beverages that tasted nothing like lemon. The Kokiri didn't even trade with the outside world enough to warrant a full-time general store either. Rinn, the Kokiri that ran it, would generally open it only if a 'big person' wandered through the village, which was rarely. Otherwise you could just ask him for something, and he would just dash off to get it for you.

Link decided to take a detour and stop by Saria's house. Since Mido had disappeared, she's been subdued, but just like Link, she was well aware that Mido could take care of himself. If he hadn't reappeared, it was probably because he'd chosen not to due to some misplaced pride. Still, it didn't stop her worrying, and it was just like her to worry more than most.

Despite this, Saria appeared slightly happier than usual as Link came to the top of the slight rise between his and Saria's houses. Perched on a tree-stump playing on a simple wooden ocarina, she looked to Link exactly how he remembered her from his earliest memories; happy and carefree.

She looked up as he approached, smiling all the while. 'I'm heading down to the market, care to join me?' he said.

'My pleasure.' she replied, stuffing the ocarina into a pouch on the side of her tunic. Hooking her arm through his, together they strode through the various forest clearings that made up Kokiri village, towards the market square.

'Have you heard the big news?' asked Saria, after a while. Link shook his head. Heard what?

The green-haired girl grinned and looked around conspiratorially, 'Well, there's a rumour going around that you might be getting...'

'_AHEM!_' said a very loud, but very tiny voice. Link groaned.

'Good morning, Feye.' he said unenthusiastically. 'To what do I owe the pleasure?'

'Feye' was Saria's Guardian Fairy. Small, pink, and full of good advice that came at the most inconvenient of times. She also had a certain dislike for Link, on account of an incident a few years back that involved Link catching her in a bottle, thinking she was a different kind of small, pink, highly useful fairy.

The little fairy completely ignored Link and turned her tiny profile fully on Saria. '_I thought we'd discussed this!_' she said, crossing her arms in a typical show of fairy dramatics. '_No talking about 'you-know-what' in front of 'you-know-who'!_'

Saria sighed. 'But Feye, what's so wrong about telling him?'

'Telling me what?'

Feye darted about erratically in front of Saria, in the way that fairies liked to do when upset. '_Don't you dare! It's not even confirmed yet!_'

'How could it not be confirmed?' Saria said, exasperated. 'Link's been with us for eleven years! No Kokiri has waited that long for his fairy to show up! It's just not fair!'

'A fairy!' Link's eyes bulged. 'Really? I'm getting a Guardian Fairy?'

Feye slumped and lost at least a foot of altitude. '_So much for keeping it a secret._' she said. Link wasn't listening though. To have a Guardian Fairy of his own? That was great! All Kokiri had a Guardian Fairy, and without one Link had always felt a little bit of an outsider. Sure, he dressed the same, ate the same, lived exactly the same as they did, but there were a few things that had always made him doubt his place in the village.

For a start, he could only remember the past few years, but talking to the others, especially Saria, he had learnt that they could remember times far in the past. Then there was the fact that in some of his memories, he was decidedly smaller than most of the Kokiri, whereas now he was almost the tallest member of the village, and this was despite the fact that Kokiri should 'never grow'. The Kokiri also had a natural ability to navigate the Lost Forest, but Link had struggled with that too, but the most glaringly obvious reason for his oddness was that he had always been lacking that one defining thing that made a person Kokiri, a true child of the forest – a Fairy.

Maybe that was about to change.

Link grinned. Just imagine the look on Mido's face!

The grin quickly fell away.

Mido...

'Er, Saria. Have you seen Mido this morning?'

Saria, who had been quietly continuing to argue with her Fairy, was taken slightly aback by the sudden and unexpected question.

'No...' she said, 'You have though, right?' The expression on Link's face told her that he hadn't.

'_Don't worry,_' Feye said soothingly, patting Saria on the nose. '_Mido will show up! This is the Solstice Festival, after all. He'd never miss it._' she turned her beady little fairy eyes on Link, '_Even if he did leave for very good reasons._'

Link tried to ignore her. 'Come on, let's get down to the market. Maybe he's already there.'

He wasn't, and although there would have been plenty for him to get bossy about, nobody in the village saw him the entire morning. This caused mixed reactions from the Kokiri, some of which were happy to be able to enjoy the day without hassle, and others who, despite their own dislike of Mido at times, were worried for his safety.

Never the less, when midday came and the Great Deku Tree's seeds started falling from the sky, blown on the wind directly over the market like it did every year, the Kokiri seemed to forget about their wayward brother and started celebrating. Celebrating involved music, food, and running around with large hand-weaved wicker baskets to catch the millions of fingernail sized seeds before they hit the ground. Of course, they couldn't catch them all, but if they could fill all of the baskets, they would have enough seeds to continue expanding the forest for the next year, a job they took very seriously. Those seeds that did hit the ground tended to explode into life almost instantly. Beautiful flowers would erupt in the middle of the pathways, roofs would be covered in moss and grass, and even the Kokiri themselves would find ivy and small flowers growing in their hair. It was truly a magical experience.

Even Link and Saria joined in, their worries of Mido lost in the song and dance of the festival. It seemed like they danced for days, so long that, as the last seeds fell, the market square was now covered in a dense layer of vegetation that was soft to the touch – their bedding for the night.

The Kokiri settled down for their evening meal of fruits, picked fresh from those plants that had been given to them that day by the Great Deku Tree. All the Kokiri that was, except Link, who was standing to one side looking out at the forest in the direction that Mido had run off two days before.

He wondered if the boy was alright. He hoped so.

A familiar hand came to rest on his shoulder, and without looking, Link knew it was Saria's.

'He'll be okay.' she said quietly, 'You know Mido. He'd never give you the satisfaction of letting you win. He'll turn up eventually, just to show people that he's not afraid of '_that bully Link_'.'

Link smiled wanly. It would be just like Mido to turn this around on him.

'He wouldn't be Mido if he didn't.' Saria pressed, sensing the subtle change in her friend's mood.

Link sighed, and for a moment Saria thought she'd gotten through to him.

'I'm still going out to look for him.'

Saria watched after her best friend as he walked off purposefully into the Lost Woods, despite the fact that he always did get hopelessly lost. She shook her head.

'And you wouldn't be you if you didn't.' she said softly before hurrying after him.

* * *

><p><em>So that's your first taster. I've got until Link's departure from Kokiri Forest for Hyrule written out, so more chapters are to follow soon. In the meantime, feedback would be appreciated as this is far from the final product.<em>

_Many thanks,_

_Chris_


	2. The Lost Woods

"Skull kid, skull kid, where have you gone?  
>Why is it that I long for your song?<br>Skull kid, skull kid, where do you hide?  
>Why do I long to be by your side?"<p>

_ Hylian Nursery Rhyme_

* * *

><p>The Lost Woods were as old as the land of Hyrule itself. As long as there had been plants and animals in the world, the Great Deku Tree had been there to act as their guardian, and as long as the Great Deku Tree had been around, the dense, almost impenetrable forest that surrounded him had been there too. Over time it had changed shape, grown and shrunk with the seasons, been chopped down and used as firewood and even swallowed great cities whole, but one thing had remained constant throughout:<p>

Things got lost in it.

It was no accident either, because when Farore made her beautiful creatures of the world, she knew that some would be corrupted by Din's power, and shamed by Nayru's order. So, she made a safe haven. A place that those in need, those who's hearts were pure despite their faults, could always find respite. And that place was the Lost Forest.

In this forest, navigation could not be done with the conscious mind. It could not be mapped, or scouted. It wasn't possible. Instead, one had to use their heart to guide them. Those who required shelter would plead with their heart and find themselves in the Great Forest Meadow, whilst those who were pursuing would have anger or lust in their hearts and only find the Skull Children, if they were lucky. It was a perilous place where one wrong thought or emotion could take a person to places where he would dare not tread normally, and escape was given only to those worthy enough to deserve it.

Link, however, was a special case. Protected by the Great Deku Tree, he could not be harmed by the Skull Children, but neither could he leave the forest, although he'd tried many times to find its extremes. His adventurous and analytical mind struggled to come to terms with the logic of the forest, for there was none, and so he found himself wandering for hours, and yet seemingly going nowhere.

That made finding a lost Kokiri very...troublesome, and was also why he was immensely glad on the rare occasions when Saria came along on his explorations.

'This way,' she said, walking off in exactly the opposite direction that Link had been about to head. Link didn't even ask why, he'd given up years ago. Instead he readjusted his new sword on his back and jumped over a rather large root to catch up with her.

'Where are we going?' he asked, peering into the murky darkness of the forest before them. 'The Sacred Forest Meadow?'

Saria shook her head. 'I don't think so.' She replied. 'This feels more like... the Crystal Pool.'

Link wondered how it was possible that Saria, who knew the forest better than any living person or creature alive, except maybe the Great Deku Tree, could only guess in what direction she was heading.

'Crystal Pool?'

Saria nodded. 'It's a small clearing with a small spring in it. The rock below the water shines and sparkles as if it has jewels embedded in it. It's really pretty.'

'Oh! You mean the wishing well!' Link exclaimed happily. 'I found it by accident last year whilst I was looking for a place to refill my water canister. It was so peaceful there that I dropped a Rupee in and made a wish.'

Saria grinned at him. 'You always were a bit of a fool.' she laughed.

'No! It came true! I was able to find my way straight back to the village, just like I wished! Ever since then, I've paid a Rupee and made a wish every time I find myself there.'

'Have these wishes come true too?'

Link shrugged. 'Well, my first wish was to find a massive _golden_ Rupee, like the know-it-all brothers said they'd seen, but I don't think it exists, so that doesn't really count.'

'Have you tried wishing for anything small?'

Link grinned. 'How do you think I found this sword?'

Saria stared at Link and shook her head in disbelief. 'I did wonder.'

* * *

><p>They didn't end up at the wishing well in the end, probably due to the fact that Link was now looking forward to getting there, but at the Great Deku Tree's clearing instead. Right at the heart of the forest sat its Guardian Tree. Scorned by Hylians and Humans alike, who thought the concept of a sentient tree was ludicrous, the Great Deku Tree was in fact one of the last great spirits of nature left in the world, probably because it was the only one that neither race could find. Entering the clearing was considered an honour to the Kokiri, for even they could not find it unless they were summoned by the tree itself.<p>

The clearing, a strange name to give to an area taken up almost entirely by a massive tree, was like an eye in the storm that was the Lost Forest. It was an area of grassland of almost seven acres, flat and clear of even the smallest scrub. Even the Deku Tree's massive canopy didn't quite reach the forest at the border of the clearing, leaving a ring of beautifully blue sky, now darkening into purple with the close of the day.

At its centre sat the Great Deku Tree itself. Rising twice as high as any other tree in the forest, and several times as thick around the trunk, it was a truly impressive sight. Link couldn't help but be in awe of the massive being. It must have lived since the dawn of time.

'He looks ill...' Saria said, softly.

At first, Link didn't understand what she meant. How could something like the Great Deku Tree, the guardian of all living things, be ill? But then he looked closer at the canopy. Even in the dying light of the day, the usual lush green colour of the Great Deku Tree's leaves were darkened, even brown in places. The bark wasn't quite as solid as he remembered either, but flaking and rotting away. Even on the lush grassland, a layer of golden debris was starting to build up.

She was right. The Great Deku Tree did not look well at all.

They started towards the tree. The Great Deku Tree had allowed them to come, and it was much too early for the Kokiri to arrive and give their thanks, that would take place at midnight that night as the final part of the festival. Perhaps there was something it wanted them to do before then?

Link was secretly pleased, although he'd never admit it. The Great Deku Tree had never spoken to him directly. In fact, he had never heard the Great Deku Tree speak at all. He only ever spoke 'through' someone, that someone usually being Mido – hence why the Kokiri generally believed he was the boss of everyone else. The only other person that could remember being spoken directly to was Saria, and she was extremely tight-lipped on the subject, going very silent whenever someone brought it up.

Maybe, just maybe, this time it was 'his' turn.

Things didn't get off to a good start.

'What are YOU doing here!' screamed a voice easily identifiable as Mido's as they approached the trunk. They spotted him sitting atop the stump they used as an altar of sorts during their thanks-giving ceremony. He looked dishevelled and slightly unwashed, but otherwise unhurt. He certainly still had spirit.

'Y-You... Go away!' he shouted, getting to his feet. 'This is a sacred place! You are not to be here! GO!'

Link felt the beginnings of anger build within himself, but a soothing hand on his forearm from Saria helped him calm enough not to act on it. He was glad when Saria spoke and directed Mido's attention away from him.

'We have every right to be here, Mido.' she said calmly. 'You know as well as I do that only those called by the Great Deku Tree can reach the clearing.'

Mido seethed for a few seconds more, his gaze darting between Saria's emerald eyes and Link's crystal blue. He huffed something, then turned his back on them and tapped his foot irritably. Saria sighed and turned to Link.

'Well, at least we found him.' she said. Link, if he was honest with himself, almost wished they hadn't.

'_Link... Heed my words._'

Link shook his head. Had he heard something? Did someone speak? Saria was looking at him strangely.

'Did you say something?' he asked her. She shook her head.

'No. Why, did you...' she continued talking, but was drowned out by the mysterious voice as it spoke again.

'_Link... It is I, the Great Deku Tree... Look into thy heart, and ye will know it is so._'

Link's eyes bulged. 'It's the Deku Tree!' he exclaimed. Saria squealed, but Link's words had caught Mido's attention and he spun on the spot, anger back in his eyes.

'The Great Deku Tree talk to you? How ridic...' Once again, the Great Deku Tree's voice drowned out all others.

'_Link... Child of Time... I have a grave task to ask of ye..._'

'He has a task for me...' Link said aloud, more to Saria than Mido, but he knew the boy was listening anyway.

'_A great evil hath afflicted me. I am in great need of thy courage, young one._'

'He's in trouble. He needs my help.'

Mido guffawed. 'Help from you? About as useful as a Deku stick in the...'

'_There is little time. Ye must enter my body and destroy the evil before it is too late._'

'Enter?' Link said, this time to the Great Deku Tree. 'But how?'

'_There is a burrow, hidden by the roots at my base, that has not been used in o'er a century. Ye must cut a way through. It will take ye inside, Link._'

Link was shocked. 'What? You want me to cut...'

'_Do not be anxious. Ye have strength that ye do not know yet. Have courage. Hurry._'

And with that, the Great Deku Tree went silent.

'What?' said Saria after an anxious few seconds of quiet. 'What is it that the Great Deku Tree wants you to do?'

Link turned his dazed expression towards her. 'I need to go inside the Great Deku Tree and 'defeat' the evil that has infected him... or something like that.'

Saria frowned. 'Inside? Are you sure? How are you meant to do that?'

Link gulped and reached up, grasping the hilt of the Kokiri Sword. It came free with a ring that echoed all around the clearing. He started towards the base of the Great Deku Tree.

This was obviously taken exactly the wrong way by Mido, who jumped to his feet and charged at Link.

'Nooo!' he screamed, leaping at the boy. Link dipped his shoulder and rolled with the hit, sending Mido careering towards the leaf-strewn floor in a heap with little more than a weak tug on Link's tunic. He continued on, determined in his mission, afraid that if he stopped, he wouldn't be able to take the swing that he knew he must...

...at the roots of the Great Deku Tree itself.

'SMACK!'

The root parted with the first stroke, the ancient blade as sharp as the day it was crafted untold ages ago. In Link's hand, it seemed to sing. The root fell aside, and Link could just see a small hole in the earth, not more than a few feet across, only a meter from where he stood.

Only a meter more of sacred roots to cut through then.

'What are you doing!' cried Mido from his place on the ground. He hadn't stood again, distraught with what he was seeing. 'You're killing the Great Deku Tree! Murderer!'

Link ignored him. The Great Deku Tree had said there was little time. If he stopped to argue with the Kokiri, the Great Deku Tree could die. The irony was not lost on Link. He took another swing and yet another thick, 100-year-old root fell away to the song of the blade.

'Link!'

This time, Link paused. He could ignore Mido all day, he had been training to do that since he could remember, but he couldn't ignore Saria.

'Please, Link. Stop.'

He turned, looking her dead in the eyes. It almost broke his heart to see she was on the verge of tears. 'If I don't, the Great Deku Tree could die.' he said slowly, forcefully. 'There's a burrow down there that the Great Deku Tree says will get me inside.' he pointed into the thicket, where he had seen the hole. 'I don't have a choice.'

Saria hiccuped, a sign she was very upset. She stayed very quiet for what felt like an eternity, her eyes never leaving Link's, not even to look at where he was pointing.

'The Great Deku Tree told you to do this?' she said eventually, 'You're certain?'

'I swear to you.' Link said, preying to all three deities that she believed him, he couldn't waste any more time.

Saria took a deep breath and raised her hand. 'Try over there,' she said, surprising both Link and Mido, 'The roots aren't as thick there.'

Link shot her a small smile and moved to where she was pointing. Indeed, the roots were much sparser here. It wouldn't take half as long to cut through them all.

Meanwhile, Mido was going berserk.

'Saria! You can't be serious! He's _murdering_ the Great Deku Tree!' he was yelling, 'He's a murderer!'

Saria pulled herself together. 'Link is trying to _save_ the Great Deku Tree, Mido!' she shouted, 'Or do you only use your ears to hear what you want to hear like everybody says?'

Mido was stunned. Saria never shouted. And what was she saying? Did she truly believe what Link was saying? 'He's not even Kokiri!' he blurted out. 'How could a Hylian talk to the Great Deku Tree, huh? Explain that!'

Saria's eyes turned sad. 'And that is where you show your ignorance, Mido.' she said softly. 'Link may not be like us, as much as I wish he were sometimes, but he is still a child of this forest, and he, like all of Farore's Children, are still protected by the Great Deku Tree. Whether they understand that or not. The Great Deku Tree may talk to and call upon any living thing he pleases, because we are all equal in his eyes. Don't you see that, Mido?'

Mido shook physically as he listened to Saria's soft voice. How could she say these things? Didn't she understand what a privilege it was to be Kokiri? To be one of the Deku Tree's caretakers? Didn't she understand what it meant when a Hylian was chosen to save the Deku Tree and not a Kokiri?

'He...He's tricked you!' Mido cried, 'He's turned you against me! I always thought you were too close to him!' he backed away on the floor, crabbing backwards on his hands. 'You're in this together!' he shouted suddenly, his eyes crazed. 'You want the Great Deku Tree dead! Murderers!'

With a shout he got to his feet and sprinted towards the tree-line. He looked over his shoulder and shouted 'Murderers!' one more time before disappearing into the forest.

Saria watched him go with a heavy heart. Mido would see his mistake in time, once he'd calmed down, she was sure of it. The boy was just afraid, she was too, but she had something that Mido had resisted from the first day that the Great Deku Tree had called them to him those twelve years ago. The day he gave them warning of a newcomer to their midst, and what it would mean for them.

The friendship and trust of a young Hylian boy, called Link.

Suddenly, the boy himself appeared at his shoulder. He was panting and slightly rosy-cheeked, but otherwise unaffected by the conversation that had occurred. With relief, Saria realised that Link had been concentrating too much on his task to hear anything of what was said. Perhaps the vegetation was too think in there, or perhaps the Great Deku Tree had shielded him somehow. She would never know, but she was glad all the same.

'I think I can get through now.' the boy said, looking about the clearing. 'Where's Mido gone?'

'He's..er..gone somewhere to think.' Saria said, looking over her shoulder at the point in the tree-line that Mido had disappeared.

Link shrugged. 'Least he's not here to shout at me any more.' he slid the sword back into its scabbard. 'I'm going in. Wait here 'till I come out?' he said, and Saria detected a hint of nervousness in his voice. She made a snap decision.

'I'm coming with you.' she informed him.

Link blinked, then shook his head violently. 'No way. It's too dangerous.'

Saria felt like laughing. There were things in this forest she'd seen that would give Link nightmares for months. Nothing inside the Great Deku Tree, no matter how horrible, would shock her.

'There's no light in there.' she said simply, 'You need my help.'

Link raised an eyebrow. 'And how do you think you can help me? I'm perfectly able to create fire on my own, you know.'

Saria felt like laughing. Link was capable of using a flint to create a spark, but he was notoriously hopeless with turning that spark into a viable fire for any practical use. Luckily, she had her own method of creating fire that was much faster and more reliable. She raised her hand and concentrated; a small green fire blinked into existence on her upturned palm. Link looked at her in shock. She smirked back.

'I'm coming with you.' she said again, and this time, there was no argument.

* * *

><p><em>So that's chapter 2 for you. I always liked this scene... Mido, for all his faults, is a great character to write when he's hysterical. I just hope it was as enjoyable to read.<em>

_Chapter three should be along soon, but tell me what you think so far. I'll be editing as I go along, and it's always good to have outside opinion._

_Chris_


	3. Great Deku Tree

"For, what defines a man better than his willingness to enter the unknown, to do battle with that which he does not truly understand, only for the reason that he knows it is the right thing to do? What better way is there to define those who are worthy of the title 'Hero'?"

_ The Book of Farore, 5:12:3_

* * *

><p>Link was first to enter the burrow. With the sword strapped tightly to his back, he was able to use both hands to lower himself into the hole, which was deeper than he expected. His foot touched the floor only as his chin disappeared into the hole. Going into a slight crouch, he entered the space beyond, making space for Saria to join him. Two seconds later, she was standing beside him, sufficiently shorter than him that she didn't need to do more than slightly duck her head. Despite their mission, she grinned at him.<p>

Lighting the magical green fire in her hand once again, the pair looked around the space they found themselves in. It was a surprisingly large cavern, although in places the earth had recently caved in. Roots came through the roof in nearly every place, giving it a furry appearance. It was obvious that this had been home to a large animal of some sorts. Link wondered what animal managed to get into the Deku Tree's clearing enough times to make itself at home.

There was no question as to where they had to go. It was dark, damp, and even though Link had been nowhere near it yet, he could sense that 'bad' things were down it. A tunnel, recently dug, was leading directly into the Great Deku Tree.

Link started down it without a second thought, conscious of the time restraint. The Great Deku Tree was dying, and every second they wasted, the closer they were to failure.

It was worse than Link anticipated. Not only was it dark and damp, but the walls were slimy in places, sticky in others, and everything smelt of mildew. It was not a nice place. Eventually the walls changed from dirt to a dark, sickly looking wood that was rotten through. Just to touch it caused the material to crumble, and their feet fought with the rapidly degrading material for purchase, even though they weren't on any sort of incline.

They erupted out into an expansive cavern. At first, all they could see was the floor immediately around them and the hole they'd just escaped. The air was slightly fresher in here, their faces no longer being quite that close to the rotting wood, but there was still something wrong.

'One second.' Saria said, and suddenly her small flame left her hand and glided soundlessly up into the air. Link followed it with his eyes, unsure how the small amount of light it produced was going to help them. As it rose, the light around them diminished, eventually so much that Link was having trouble making out Saria's form standing next to him.

She slipped her hand into his.

He soon wished that he'd had more faith in Saria's magic. With a soft 'whomph' the faint green flame multiplied tenfold. Where before the cavern had been dark and mysterious, now it was lit...

And Link almost wished it wasn't.

'Get back!' He shouted, dropping Saria's hand and reaching for the Kokiri Sword as he backed towards the tunnel. Just in time he got the metal free of its covering, deflecting a blurry white and black object away. The sculltula, a relatively small and fast moving variety, crashed across the cavern, taking out one of its larger cousins along the way. Another sculltula attacked, and Link batted it aside, the thick armour on its back taking the hit. It flew further than the last, but Link didn't watch it land. He was too concerned with which one of the other various sized spiders were going to attack him next.

What the light had revealed was not the hollowed out insides of a tree, where rotten wood would be the worst of their problems, but a ruddy great spider's nest. The walls, where walls were visible that was, were completely covered in silky webbing, and the floor was just as bad. If this truly was the innards of the Great Deku Tree, they were all in big trouble.

'Fire!' Saria shouted, thrusting her hands forward. Link jumped aside, shocked when a large tongue of green fire shot out of the tunnel entrance that Saria had taken refuse in. It impacted on one of the larger spiders that had been slowly creeping towards them, and the thing let out an ear-splitting cry as it caught alight. Thrashing about, it bumped into some of its cousins and they caught alight too. In a very short amount of time, about a quarter of the spiders were either lying blackened in their shells, quite dead, or running away in panic as the fire started to take them too.

Link saw an opening.

He transferred the sword to his right hand, grabbed Saria's arm and yanked her to her feet. 'Come on!' he shouted, running straight through the hole in the slowly closing wall of spiders that the fire had created.

They ran. As fast and as far as they could, struggling all time on the webbing underfoot that was just as treacherous as the rotten wood of the tunnel. It seemed to change consistency at will, causing their feet to slip at times, but then sticking their supporting hands tight when they tried to get back up. All the while, the growing sound of clicking behind them alerted them to the fact that they were being pursued.

Things didn't look good.

'More fire!' Link shouted over the echoing sound of clicking. He deflected another sculltula away with a wild right handed swing and plunged the sword into its exposed belly as it led on the floor upside down. It screeched once, then died.

'Now!' he pointed backwards towards their perusers with the sword. Saria didn't need to be told again. In an instant a large ball of green flame was shooting away from them. There was no time for the sculltula to react, and those in the front of the wave were burnt to a crisp almost immediately. The rest scattered, some in flames, some just because they were terrified.

'Quick, in here!' Link said softly, grabbing Saria by the tunic and pulling her into another tunnel of rotting wood. If Saria was angry about the rough treatment, she didn't voice it as they ran upwards, more concerned with keeping her feet and escaping death-by-spider than berating her friend.

They erupted out into another unlit cavern. Link adjusted his grip on the Kokiri Sword, now back in his preferred left hand, as he waited for Saria to work her magic. A few seconds later and another glowing green orb was floating above their heads, illuminating the entire area. It was a smaller cavern than the last, and still covered in webbing, but thankfully deserted. Link breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't put away his sword. Just in case.

He rounded on Saria. 'You never told me you could do _that_!' he exclaimed, keeping his voice low to avoid attracting any undue attention.

Saria shrugged. 'There's a lot of things you don't know about me.' she said simply, looking wearily back down the tunnel they'd just escaped up. 'I didn't know _you_ could handle a real sword. I thought you preferred your slingshot.'

Link's free hand instinctively went to his back pocket, where his slingshot and seed pouch were still tucked away. He was glad he hadn't dropped it in the chaos of the chase.

'I do.' he admitted, 'but deku seeds aren't much good against spiders_ that_ big. They'd just bounce off...'

They trailed off into silence, only the heavy breathing caused by their exertion sounding in the strangely still room.

'So... what now?' Saria asked. Link shrugged. He'd already looked around the room. There was only one exit – the same one they'd used to get up there.

'We go back.' he said, resigned. 'The Great Deku Tree said I..._we_ have to 'defeat the evil'. Maybe that means we have to kill all the spiders?'

'_Hem..._' said a familiar small voice. '_I have a suggestion._' Feye emerged from Saria's mop of green hair looking a little worse for wear.

'Feye, are you okay?' Saria asked, concerned. The fairy waved her off.

'I'm not a fan of spiders.' Feye admitted, wrapping her little arms around her body. 'They bring me out in goosebumps.'

'Well, I don't exactly find them 'warm and cuddly' either...' Link said, crossing his arms.

Feye shot him a dirty look. 'You're bigger than me! Now, do you want my help or not?'

'Yes, Feye,' Saria said in a soothing voice, 'We would like your help very much.'

Feye huffed at Link's lack of verbal agreement, but didn't complain, more content to get the pair out of the situation they were in than to argue the point. '_I don't think you have to kill 'all' the spiders to defeat the evil here.' _she said, her tiny voice shaking slightly at the thought,_ 'Only their Queen. That's how this all started anyway._'

Link narrowed his eyes. 'Only the Queen? Wait, are you saying that all these sculltula came from one 'massive' spider somewhere?'

The light surrounding Feye made it impossible for Link to see if she nodded her head or not, but she did jump up and down in the air a little bit, which he took as the same. '_Not a sculltula, or even a true spider, but a dark creature called 'Gohma'. We faeries can talk to the Great Deku Tree wherever we are, and he tells me that she was set on him by an evil man because the Great Deku Tree wouldn't give him something precious that he wanted. More importantly though, if you defeat Gohma, then you will have defeated her magic too, and all these spiders will perish._'

'That would save the Great Deku Tree too!' Saria added.

Link nodded. So they had a plan. There was only one more problem to overcome. 'Where can we find this 'Gohma'?'

Feye dropped a few centimetres in the air. '_The Great Deku Tree doesn't know. He says that as Gohma is a creature of darkness, you should perhaps try going down, rather than up, but that's just his instinct._'

Link nodded again. 'I'll take the Great Deku Tree's instinct over my being completely lost any day. We head down.' he said, sounding more sure of himself than he felt. Link started towards the tunnel entrance before pausing. 'Thank you, Feye.'

Feye went to reply, but the boy was already gone. She dropped onto Saria's shoulder. '_It's a shame, really. Navi would have been happy with him, I think._'

Saria's ears pricked up. 'Navi?' she said. Feye waved her hand dismissively and launched herself back into the air.

'_I'll tell you later._' she said, '_First, you need to make sure that boy doesn't kill himself doing something stupid!_'

Saria was tempted to argue, but she could already hear Link's warcry, and the sound of a sword clashing against something hard. She could find out later. Link needed her right now.

She darted after her friend, collecting the small floating flame into her hand as she went.

By the time she reached the end of the tunnel, the scuffle was already over. Three small sculltula lay dead at Link's feet, all with gaping wounds in their bellies.

'And I thought you were in trouble.' Saria muttered as she came to stand next to the boy in green. He shrugged.

'Two more and I would have been.' he said, and then more to himself: 'Should've brought a shield.'

They were standing on a ledge near the very top of the cavern that had been made of the Great Deku Tree's insides. Twinkling not far above their heads was Saria's original flame. Link didn't know much about magic, but he imagined it would take quite a lot of effort to keep something that bright lit for long. He asked as much.

'Not as much as you'd think,' Saria replied, shifting nervously as she peered down into the depths of the hole through the Great Deku Tree. She increased the power of the orb so they could see the very bottom. Something glittered back at them. 'Is that water?'

Link leaned over too. 'One way to find out...' he said, kicking one of the dead sculltula over the edge.

They watched, transfixed as the spider dropped through the cavern. One second, two seconds...three...four... then the tiniest of ripples appeared on the glittering surface below, the sound of a splash reverberated around the cavern within a second.

'Farore, that's a long drop...' Saria said under her breath.

'Too far to jump?'

Saria fixed Link with a stare she reserved for only the stupidest of his or Mido's comments. 'Put it this way, Link. Even if you survived that fall, you wouldn't long survive me, because the next time I saw you, I'd kill you.'

Link shrugged. 'Fair enough.' he said, sliding the Kokiri Sword back into its sheath and tugging on its straps, as if to check they were still tight. 'Didn't think I'd get out of here alive anyway.'

Then he jumped. Saria screamed something, although what it was not even she was sure, and Link plummeted after the dead sculltula, leaving Saria gaping after him. She'd stopped screaming by the third second, replaced by a held breath as she prayed to all three goddess that the bloody stupid idiot boy that had just thrown himself into a 50ft dive wouldn't kill himself.

Because, just like she promised she would, she would be very disappointed if she couldn't throttle him herself.

It was further than he'd thought. Having jumped off and closed his eyes, Link had counted to five in his head and braced himself for the water. Of course, it hadn't happened quite like that, and what in Link's head was five seconds was probably closer to two. So when he'd still been falling, Link made the mistake of opening his eyes to find out what had happened.

It was at this point that he realised that he was falling very fast towards what was, essentially, a very hard-looking surface. The pool was small, roughly circular in shape, and although it was definitely water he was rapidly falling towards, the ripples caused by the dead skulltula were already diminishing, the surface of the water starting to resemble stone once more as it settled.

Of course, once he'd realised this, it seemed that the time he had yet to fall was diminishing much too speedily. He hit the water in his best impression of a swan dive, his hands stretched out in front of him with such rigidity that Link felt the force of the water hitting his palms reverberate up into his shoulder blades with such violence that he was worried he'd permanently damaged something. He had much more immediate problems however, as the world instantly became a confusing chaotic mass of swirling water and air, in which the term 'up' became lost in the cacophony of movement. Instinctively, his legs kicked out in an attempt to stabilise himself, and Link felt his foot make contact with something hard.

Without much else to go on, Link stretched out his leg and found the solid object again, pushing himself off with it, hoping that it was the bottom of the pool, rather than the side or, Nayru forbid, some creature living in it. Half a second later Link's prayers were answered as his head broke the surface of the still violently churned water, and he was able to take a grateful breath of air, although this far inside the rotting tree, it was hardly 'fresh'.

'Link!' called a slightly hysterical voice Link easily recognised as Saria's, 'Link! Are you okay?'

Link took a second to spit out some unwanted water before answering. 'I'm fine!' he shouted back, gratefully realising that although his arms and shoulder blades ached a little, they were in full working order despite what he'd put them through. 'I could use a little light though!'

'Oh...' came the response. High above, the large floating green flame started to drop through the tree, creating long shifting shadows on every surface as it did so. Link looked up in wonder at the light display, before something caught his eye.

'Saria!' he shouted, 'Jump!'

He saw Saria's head poke over the edge of the ledge that she was on and look down at him in what he interpreted as as incredulously, even at that distance. 'Sorry, Link, but I'm not...'

'Above you, Saria!' Link shouted more urgently, 'Quickly! Jump!'

Saria's head appeared to turn and look upwards, at which point she must have spotted the massive skulltula, because Link heard her squeak an alarm. Feye zipped out of Saria's hair and, despite her fear of spiders, flew straight at the thing's face, stunning it slightly.

'Jump!' Link demanded a third time. Something caught his attention in the corner of his eye, and he looked down to see his slingshot floating within arms reach, a number of the deku seed ammunition floating around it. They had obviously been dislodged from his back pocket during the fall. Without thinking about what he was doing, Link found himself grabbing the slingshot and loading it. He let loose two shots within as many seconds.

* * *

><p>Up above, Saria was still frozen with fear as the large skulltula swung violently side-to-side above her as it attempted to rid itself of the bright glittering light that blinded it. She desperately wanted to launch a ball of flame at it, but with Feye in the way she was concerned about hitting her guardian fairy. She looked desperately around her for somewhere to flee to, but was dismayed to see that the skulltula they'd fought off earlier had returned, probably attracted by the flame in her hand and the shouting she and Link had just engaged in.<p>

'Jump!' came Link's voice from below. She looked down at the drop once more and calculated the chances of her coming out the jump uninjured. She quickly decided that she couldn't do it. Just then, two small objects rocketed past her head with inches to spare. She ducked her head in instinctively as a screech sounded from directly above her as the two objects, deku seeds she realised absently, struck the skulltula. She didn't have much time to think on it however, as the skulltula suddenly dropped to the deck, right on top of Saria. Without realising what had happened, Saria found herself being shoved to the side by the massive spider's bulk, and then suddenly she was suspended in the air... Scrub that, she was falling!

* * *

><p>Link watched everything unfold with concerned eyes. His double shot had struck its mark, almost... The first one had hit the skulltula in the mandibles, exactly where he had aimed, but the second one had veered off course somewhat and had missed the spider by meters. That wasn't the end of its story however, as instead of hitting the rather large skulltula, it had somehow flown straight through the tiny silk thread that held it suspended. Without anything holding it in the air, the large skulltula dropped the last few feet towards Saria, landing pretty much on her head. If she hadn't been leaning over the ledge moments before, she might have been squashed by its massive body, but she had been easily knocked over the edge instead. She let out a scream, and Link looked on wide-eyed as Saria, her ball of green flame and the tiny pink speck that was Feye, plummeted directly towards him.<p>

He almost forgot to move. Almost.

The splash was enormous, drenching Link as he hung to the side of the pool. Water sloshed around the extremes of the pool as the wave created by Saria's arrival in it propagated outwards. Within seconds her head exploded from the still-bubbling surface with a great gasp. Above her, Feye and the great green orb of fire gracefully came to a stop about a foot above her head.

Saria looked at Link with murder in her eyes. 'Not a word, Link. Not one!'

Link grinned manically. 'I wouldn't dare... I have to ask though, did you have a nice trip?'

Saria sent the orb of fire at his head, and she wasn't looking to miss either.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later found them both sitting on the edge of the pool, drying themselves on the magical green flame that Saria was sustaining. The area had been mercifully free of skulltula, although the cobweb décor was still present. Feye had suggested that perhaps it was the water that had kept them away, as spiders couldn't swim, and were therefore mortally afraid of the stuff. Link stored that piece of information away in the back of his head for another day.<p>

However, now that they were down here, it wasn't immediately obvious where they were going to go next. The cavern base was roughly circular, mirroring the pool in its centre, and the walls appeared smooth behind the thick covering of silky webbing. Link had even scouted a little below the surface of the water, looking for a tunnel that lead anywhere further under the Great Deku Tree, but found nothing but a couple of partially-decomposed skulltula bodies.

This left them with a bit of a dilemma. Not only were they unsure of their next move, but even if they had wanted to escape the same way they had come in, that tunnel was at least thirty feet above their heads, somewhere in the wall of a skulltula-infested cavern. It wasn't looking good.

'We could always go back to Plan A; kill every skulltula we can find and hope that it's enough...' Link said, staring through his fingers into the artificial flame before him. He had been dry for a couple of minutes ago, but the fire was warm, and he had run out of ideas.

Saria shifted uneasily beside him as she looked up at the cavern above. She'd sent a second green orb up to keep an eye on the upper-levels of the cavern, just in case the skulltula decided to launch a mass-attack on them. She was hoping that they'd be able to spot them before they reached Link and herself, and that they'd therefore have a chance to jump into the water to get away from them in plenty of time, even if getting back into that freezing cold water was the last thing she wanted to do at the moment.

'I'd rather not.' she said, cringing as she watched a skulltula scuttle upwards out of the pool of light. 'They might be creatures of the forest and everything, but they still give me the creeps.'

'You didn't have to come.' Link mumbled, 'but I'm glad you did.'

Saria smiled at him and rested her head on Link's shoulder. 'I'm going to miss you...' she said softly.

Link frowned. Miss him? Why would she miss...

'Look!' Saria hissed, distracting Link from his thoughts. 'At the fire! Look!'

Link, who had been staring at the fire anyway, peered into it further. 'I don't see anything... What am I meant to be looking at?'

'It's shifting!' she whispered, as if saying it out loud would somehow make it not true. 'Like it's in a breeze!'

Frowning, Link stopped peering into the centre of the fire, and refocused on the flame as a whole. At first, he couldn't see anything, but then the green fire flickered slightly, and then again. Within moments, he was just as convinced as Saria.

'You're right...' he whispered back, 'It looks like it's coming from over...there!'

He got up slowly, careful not to move too quickly and make a ripple in the air himself, and moved towards where the breeze appeared to be originating. Now that he knew what he was looking for, it was easy to spot the point in the cavern wall where the cobwebs were being wafted horizontally by a slight breeze.

'Here!' he declared, peering into the webbing, but it was too thick to see through properly. Eagerly, he took out his sword and slashed at the silky material, but it was even too thick for this, as the blade quickly got stuck, and Link had to use all his strength to remove it. As the sword came away, Link was dismayed to see that it was covered with masses of sticky silk web. In a moment of inspiration, he stuck it in Saria's green flame, and the entire sword bust alight in moments. It burnt brightly for a couple of seconds, before snuffing out as all the silk disintegrated. Within moments the sword looked as good as new.

Link grinned.

'We need to get back into the water.' he said, grabbing Saria's hand. She gave a little shout of alarm as he tugged her towards the frigid water.

'Wha! Why?' she squealed, alarmed that Link wasn't giving her a choice in the matter.

Link didn't immediately reply, but instead jumped at the pool, dragging Saria's hand with him. They both fell towards the surface of the water once more, Feye shooting out of Saria's hair at the last moment before she and Link became submerged once more.

'For the love of Nayru, Link!' Saria exclaimed once they'd both emerged. 'What's gotten into you!'

Link continued to grin at her. 'Set alight to the web.' he said, a twinkle in his eye. Saria immediately understood why they were in the water, although it didn't make her much happier about it. She did, however, flick her hand, and the magical flame that had been hovering less than a foot above the web-strewn cavern floor suddenly lost a foot of altitude. The cobweb floor burst into flame, and moments later it spread to the walls. Within thirty seconds the webbing on the floor was no more, and the fire went out there, but it continued to spread up the walls even as the bottom was extinguished through lack of fuel. Like a wave of all-consuming fire, it flew up the cavern, and soon Link and Saria could hear the sounds of skulltula as their world was enveloped.

'We should go...' Link said, looking a little less pleased with himself as the first skulltula splashed into the water less than a metre from them, screaming and on fire as it came. Saria didn't have to be told twice.

The pair shifted quickly, getting themselves out of the water and to the side of the cavern to where the breeze had come from. Without the webbing blocking their line of sight, a tunnel in the side of the cavern was clearly presented. Larger than the one they had originally used to enter the Great Deku Tree, Link was able to fully stand as he ducked into it.

Glancing back at the cavern, the pair surveyed the damage Saria's fire had done. Still burning at the very top of the cavern, the pool at the bottom was rapidly filling up with the soldering remains of skulltula, big and small. If Link hadn't disliked skulltula as much as he did, it would have been a disturbing sight. Saria on the other hand, seemed more distressed. Link grabbed her hand, gave it a reassuring squeeze, and pulled her away from the sight, into the pitch-black tunnel.

* * *

><p><em>Chapter three for you. Just to remind you that these are but trial chapters, and I'm very interested in getting feedback on any aspects of the story so far. Does it all make sense? Are the characters believable (is Link the way you thought he would be), is Saria's use of magic too much too soon? Is the action enjoyable to read - I'm aware that it's not the strongest aspect of my writing.<em>

_If you have anything that you think I should hear, even if it's just a simple nod that I'm on the right track, feel free to either review or send me a PM. I'm interested in feedback however I get it._

_Hope you're enjoying it._

_Chris_


	4. Queen Gohma

"There is but a very fine line between Hero and Fool,  
>for a Fool will enter a burning building thinking he is a Hero,<br>but a Hero will enter that same building knowing that he is a Fool."

_ Book of Din, 1:5:22_

* * *

><p>The tunnel was thankfully devoid of cobwebs, although Link was slightly distressed to note that the walls were becoming more and more damp as they went on. Eventually, the rotten wood gave way to earth once again, and as it did, the tunnel started turning and twisting in tight arcs that made it difficult to maintain a sense of direction. Within minutes, Link and Saria became disorientated, and when the tunnel ahead suddenly split, they were at a loss as to which they should take.<p>

'The breeze comes from both...' Saria said, turning her face into each tunnel in turn. 'Should we split up?'

Link shook his head. 'Who would light my way?' he said jovially, although the idea of letting Saria walk around the tunnels on her own filled him with more than a little fear. He was sure she could take care of herself, but he wasn't about to let anything happen to her either.

In the end they took the left hand tunnel, for no other reason than it seemed slightly less moist. Despite that reasoning, the further into the tunnel they went, the more that water collected underfoot. Within a few minutes, they found themselves facing a pool of water that stretched from their toes to a wall of earth not ten feet in front of them. It seemed that they'd walked down as far as they could go, for even though the winding path went on, it was flooded.

'Should we turn back? Try the other tunnel?' Saria said, kneeling down to test the temperature of the water with her hand. She shivered and withdrew the hand quickly. 'I don't fancy swimming much.'

'At least we haven't encountered anything alive...' Link said, shuffling to the ground for a brief rest whilst they figured out their next move. Naturally, as soon as he'd said it, a scuffling of movement sounded down the tunnel behind them. Feye appeared out of Saria's hair and scowled at Link, as if it were entirely his fault, before zooming back up the tunnel to take a look. She was back within moments.

_'Gohma Larvae!'_ she said in her tiny high-pitched voice. '_At least five, probably more._' Link screwed up his face in confusion.

'Gooma-what?'

Fay huffed something, but it was Saria that answered, her face a sickly pale colour in her green flame. 'All the spiders in the Great Deku Tree are born of a Gohma Queen, but there is a legend that every few hundred years the current queen will lay a clutch of young Gohmas, destined to be the next queens – the ones that aren't eaten by their mother anyway.'

'She eats her own young?' Link asked, disgusted. Saria nodded sombrely.

'_I wouldn't complain too much, Link._' Feye said shrilly, '_because if she didn't, there'd be so many Gohma running around the forest that they'd kill everything else off. That, and there would be twice as many of them running around these caverns._'

Link gave an audible 'gulp' at the thought. 'If they're miniature spider queens, they must be dangerous, right?'

'Poisonous, naturally,' Saria said sardonically, 'Although nowhere near as potent as a fully grown queen, they'll still leave you feeling like you've fought three rounds with a wolfos.' The sound of scuttling increased dramatically, and all three heads turned towards the bend ten yards away, where a hairy, sickly looking leg had just appeared.

Link was on his feet in a flash. 'Can they swim?' he said, his hand already grasping the hilt of the Kokiri Sword.

'I...er...' Saria looked hopelessly at Feye, who shrugged.

'Doesn't matter anyway. Get in and swim for the other side.'

'What about you, Link?' Saria eyed the boy nervously, recognising the set jaw and ready stance of her friend. 'You can't possibly take them all on alone...'

'Won't have to.' Link responded quickly as the first Gohma larvae stumbled around the corner on its three appendages, one of which looked suspiciously like a massive stinger. 'I'm just going to stall them whilst you get clear.' He stole them a look that clearly told them that he was serious. 'Go! Quickly!'

Saria faltered, but in the next second Link inadvertently pushed her into the freezing water as he stepped back to brace himself against the launching attack of a Gohma larvae. She was vaguely aware of the wet sound of steel on flesh, and an ungodly screeching sound, before she hit the water. The temperature caused her body to contract, and she felt herself breathing in a mouthful of rank, stagnant water. Clinging somewhere in her mop of green hair, Feye was going through a similar experience. Suddenly she found her head above water again and she managed a massive breath of air, mixed with convulsive coughing up of the water she'd just swallowed, only to get splashed in the face seconds later.

Back on the shore, Link was vaguely aware of his friend's plight, but was slightly more concerned with the stingers that were being pointed his way. The first Gohma had surprised him with its speed, and he'd only just had time to react as it launched its full weight towards him, stinger first. A hurried parry with the Kokiri Sword had safely deflected the blow, but at the expense of the three foot of standing space he'd been forced back. The second mini-Gohma had used the same tactic, its stinger aimed straight for his heart. This time Link was ready for it, and smartly side-stepped the airborne arachnid. It flew past him with inches to spare, making a splashdown in the pool behind him. He desperately wanted to watch it, to see if it would sink or swim, but his attention was forced back towards the advancing Gohma larvae before him, all of which had a seemingly unreasonable hatred of him.

As the last three Gohma larvae all shaped themselves for the lunge that Link knew was coming, Link couldn't help but wonder if anyone would find his body down in these caverns, or would the little Gohma eat him after they'd killed him. Thankfully, the shouts of Saria and Feye distracted him from the morbid thoughts. He turned his head just in time to see the last thrashing appendage of the sinking mini-Gohma slide beneath the surface of the water, at which point he didn't need to be told his next move.

Without thinking, he dove for the pool of freezing, smelly water. Mid-flight, he found himself vaguely aware of an added weight and a hairy leg on his shoulder, but then he too was in the water, and all the air in his lungs was forced out and then back in very fast as cold shock hit. As his head broke the surface, his vision was filled with the thrashing white water which marked the spots where the three lunging Gohma had ended up. Like drowning men, they screeched with indignation and fear as their legs found no purchase in their liquid prison. Link quickly moved out of the middle and towards where Saira was treading water towards the back of the pool, carefully avoiding getting in striking range of the struggling spiders. He was sure their stings would still hurt, even under water.

Twenty seconds later, and it was all over. Saria and Link silently gazed back at the shore over the quickly settling water, at the one last Gohma larvae, the original attacker, who was limping badly back down the tunnel but was at least alive and on dry land. Feye fluttered about above their heads, more unnerved than anything else.

'You okay?' Link asked softly, his eyes never leaving the Gohma larvae as it limped away.

Saria nodded. 'Cold.' she mumbled, her eyes following a similar path to her friend's.

'Do we go back?' Link didn't much like the idea, but at least that way it was dry.

'_We keep going,_' came the answer from above their heads. '_The pathway isn't underwater for long, and that's where the Queen Gohma is._'

Link looked up. 'How do you know that?'

Feye tapped her head. '_Great Deku Tree in my head..._' she reminded him.

It took Link a number of minutes before he managed to work up the nerve to dive into the darkness of the tunnel. Saria had tried sending one of her orbs of light, but it seemed that even magical fire had trouble staying lit underwater. The best she could do was make it as bright as possible and hover it as close to the water as she could without it going out. Giving Saria one last thin-lipped smile, he gulped down a massive breath of air and disappeared beneath the water.

Saria's light faded quickly under water, and within moments Link was reduced to feeling his way along the sides of the earthen tunnel. It levelled out almost immediately, and Link felt a sense of relief. He'd never been much good at diving to great depths, something that Mido had often teased him about, even going as far as dropping valuable rupees to the bottom of the deep well in the forest where Link could see them, but could never hope to reach. Caught in the memory, Link was taken by surprise when his hand suddenly stopped feeling earth above him, but instead the numbing cold of air on wet skin. Moments later he gulped down a well-needed breath of air, although it was anything but 'fresh'.

Almost immediately after Link's lungs had overcome the overriding sense of relief of having air again, his throat violently protested the air that was being forced past it. Link found himself gagging, although thankfully his lunch stayed in his stomach. Stale, and with an almost overpowering smell of rotting vegetation, the air felt heavy. If Link could have survived without breathing it in, he would have given it a go.

Busy covering his mouth and nose from the smell, an almost impossible task, Link almost missed the arrival of a small green glowing object from beneath the water. In fact, it was only her gasp of horror that caused him to notice the hovering fairy.

'Feye! What're you doing here? Where's Saria?'

Feye's form shook off the last of the water, before landing on Link's nose. Snapping one eye shut so he could focus with the other, Link saw that Feye's expression was anything but happy.

'_She sent me on ahead to check up on you!_' she said indignantly. '_You were gone a long time, we thought you might have been in trouble!_'

Link was tempted to tell her that he was 'not' okay having to breathe in this air, but decided against it. 'I'm fine,' he said instead. 'Go get Saria. We must be close now.'

Feye returned with Saria a minute later, who gagged even more violently than her two companions. 'This is horrible!' she exclaimed, and by Feye's weak light, Link could see that she did indeed look quite ill. 'It smells of... death.'

Link wasn't going to argue with her. 'We better have a look at it.' He said softly, taking hold of his friend's waist and pulling her towards where the water was shallower so she could stand.

'Thank you, Link.' she said, and if there was the slightest hint of surprise in her voice, Link missed it in his focused concern for her well-being.

Saria's fire flickered into being directly above their heads, chasing back the shadows to reveal their little corner of a much larger cavern. Not tall like the inside of the Great Deku Tree, but wide and deep. All throughout the space, the Great Deku Tree's roots twisted and arched, creating what would have been a magnificently beautiful support for the earthen cavern, but which had been spoiled by the rotten nature of every surface. Where midnight-flowering plants had once blossomed under the Great Deku Tree's nurturing, they lay limp and decaying, their fragrance turned putrid by the evil that had taken up inhabitance.

'We must be directly under the Great Deku Tree...' Saria breathed as her orb floated forward towards the nearest root. As wide around as Link was tall, the trunk was massive, made up of hundreds of individual root strands all woven together to make the pillar of dense wood. The individual strands spread out separately at the top and bottom of the pillar to form part of either the floor or ceiling, which both appeared entirely made up of living things. If it hadn't been blackened and rotten through with fungus, it would have been a truly magnificent sight. 'Look,' she said bending down and scooping up a handful of soil, 'Deku seeds! These only grow in the domain of the Great Deku Tree.'

Link quickly grabbed a handful of earth himself, 'There are hundreds of them... I've never seen so many deku seeds in one place!'

'Like I said, we must be at the base of the Great Deku Tree. The equivalent of the Great Deku Tree's heart. This should be the most fertile place in the entire world...'

Link screwed up his nose. 'Look at it though...'

'_Shush, both of you!_' Feye whispered harshly in their ears, waving back and forth in front of them in warning, '_Can't you hear that?_'

The urgency in her voice wasn't to be argued with, and both Kokiri immediately turned their attention to the sounds of this strange alive-but-dead cavern. At first all they could hear was their own ragged breathing and the drip-drip-drip of their slowly drying clothes, but they soon became aware of the other sounds. The slitherings and creakings that indicated living things not too far away.

Link silently loaded his slingshot. Just in case.

'C'mon.' he said eventually, tired of waiting for the things in the darkness to decide to attack them.

'Where're you going?' Saria's panicked whisper said from over his shoulder as he stepped over the first thigh-high root that had served as a defence for them as they listened. Link looked back at her, his face set in a determined frown.

'We were sent here with a job to do. _Defeat the evil_.' he nodded to himself, 'I'd say we've found it. Now we just need to work out how to defeat it.' And with that, he raised his slingshot and stepped forward, out of the immediate light of Saria's orb.

_'I guess the Great Deku Tree was right,_' said Feye to her Kokiri, '_Too bad this is how Link finds out._'

'He'll always have support.' Saria replied softly, 'A person like Link can't help but draw good people to him.'

'_He'd be safer staying with the Kokiri. Farore knows I've had my differences with the boy, but we can't in good conscience send him out into Hyrule alone. Especially now that Navi..._'

Saria shook her head. 'He won't be alone.' And with that, she followed after her friend.

* * *

><p>The cavern was even larger than they'd thought, for as Saria's orb travelled with them, and its light faded from the vine-covered cavern wall that they'd come from, the other side failed to materialise. Instead the pillars and arches of roots materialised on all sides. The three quietly made their way through this foreign place that had the feeling of a rotting underground forest. The blackened roots underfoot would creak and give way as they stepped on them, whilst the roots in the ceiling oozed dark coloured liquids which smelt horrid. Within a number of minutes Link and Saria found themselves covered from head to tail in the sticky substance that seemed to coat nearly free surface.<p>

'Never thought I'd find myself hoping to run across another freezing pool of water...' Link said softly as they crept around yet another column of blackened root.

'Never thought I'd hear you volunteering to take a bath...' Saria quipped, although she privately felt herself empathising completely with Link's wishes to be cleaner.

'_Will you two be quiet!_' Feye hissed, '_Or do you want something nasty to find you in the dark?_'

Link came up short and sighed. 'I don't think making noise is going to get us noticed in here.' he said, waving a deku stick he'd been using as a walking stick around at the cavern in a sweeping movement. 'This place might have been full of live at one time, but there's nothing here now.'

'I wouldn't be so sure, Link.' Saria whispered, more inclined to agree with her fairy.

'You don't think the Great Deku Tree meant for us to burn all of this too, do you?' Link wondered idly, poking the nearest root with his deku stick. The root split easily, allowing another wave of overwhelmingly rotten air to waft over them. If they hadn't been experiencing it for the last five minutes, every time they broke a root underfoot, Saria or Feye might have protested, but they hardly noticed the smell any more. Link's words alarmed Saria a little though.

She tried out the idea by sounding it out. 'Set fire to the Great Deku Tree's roots?' It sounded as stupid an idea out loud as it did in her head.

Link shrugged. 'I can't think of anything else to do. If there were some big monster to fight, then at least we'd have a clear objective...'

Saria had looked up at her friend as he spoke when her eyes caught a flicker of movement over his shoulder.

'...and it's not like I'm not glad that there isn't some big hairy spider queen to kill...'

The flicker of movement disappeared as quickly as it came, and Saria found herself scanning the darkness for more movement. Unconsciously she leant more power to her orb, increasing its range.

'...it just feels like we've been walking through this place for ages, and we haven't even so much as a bad-tempered Deku Scrub...'

The second flicker of movement appeared over Link's other shoulder. Saria sat up straighter.

'...not that a bad-tempered Deku Scrub is exactly a harbinger of evil. More a harbinger of nuisance... Saria, are you feeling okay?'

Saria certainly did not feel okay. In actual fact, she felt like she might throw up, but she knew that wasn't an option. She entertained the notion that perhaps the smell might put off the creature before her, but quickly shot down that idea. Any creature that lived in this place obviously had no sense of smell.

'Saria? What...' Link said, concern in his voice. Getting no response from the Kokiri, he turned to look in the direction she was staring at... and almost jumped out of his skin.

Instinctively, he threw the deku stick in the thing's direction, in an attempt to dissuade it from getting any closer to him than it already had. The stick struck one of its massive legs, but if it felt the connection, there was no indication. Instead it maintained its position on the edge of the circle of light that Saria's orb gave them.

'For the love of Nayru...' Link swore, 'What the hell is that?'

'That is a Queen Gohma, Link.' Saria said under her breath. 'And if it hadn't been startled by the light of my orb, we'd all be dead right now.'

Link nodded, although neither Saria nor Feye were sparing looks his way to catch it. He could understand why. The Queen Gohma was truly massive, carried on two tree-trunk sized legs and stabilised by a third that was currently arcing threateningly above its head, armed with a leathal-looking spike that dripped with a dark venom that Link knew would kill him before the blow that delivered it. The most striking thing about the monster, however, was the single yellow eye that shone out of its abdomen, directly above a pair of mandibles each as big as Link's entire body.

Link pocketed his sling shot, knowing that it would be less that useless against the creature before him.

'Saria, on three, throw your orb at him and run in the opposite direction.'

'We're running away?' She shook her head. 'We'd never make it. That thing would catch us in a second.'

Link swallowed heavily, hardly believing what he was saying. 'Who said anything about me running anywhere?'

For a second, Saria stared at her best friend with a look of both admiration and terror. 'Link...'

'Just do it!' he hissed back at her, reaching over his shoulder for a firm hold on the Kokiri Sword's grip. 'We can argue about who's being stupid when it's dead.'

She stood frozen for what felt like an eternity, long enough for Link to believe that he was going to lose his resolve, but then suddenly she was gone, and the orb of light was hurtling towards the massive Queen Gohma creature.

Later, when Link thought on it, he had to give Saria credit for her aim, because the orb flew unerring directly into the Gohma's single glowing eye. It screeched in anger and confusion, temporarily blinded, and Link took the opportunity to slide sideways into the relative safety of the shade of a nearby column of roots.

The next few seconds seemed to blur into one.

There was a massive screeching as the Queen Gohma reacted to what had happened, then Link saw another orb blink into life in the direction that Saria had run. The stupid, wonderful, brilliant girl with a death-wish had done exactly what he'd hoped she'd do. She'd become the bait.

With a scream of frustration, the Gohma started towards the little ball of flame. Its three limbs, despite looking cumbersome, carried it swiftly through its newly acquired home, and right past Link's hiding place.

Before he could think about what he was doing, Link had launched himself at the nearest leg, the Kokiri sword shining brightly with reflected green light. He felt the sword catch on something, and another screech wrenched its way though the air.

The Gohma's momentum allowed Link a moment of satisfaction as his sword was wrenched free of the appendage, its gleaming edge dulled by a sickly green liquid that Link assumed was the thing's blood. The moment of triumph was short lived though, as the Gohma found its footing once more and turned towards this new attacker.

Link jumped out the way of the deadly stinger as it swung wildly in his direction. The initiative lost, and with his attack seemingly having caused no major damage, he dived for the nearest cover; a large root as big as his house back in Kokiri Village. No sooner had he found its safety than splinters started flying off in all directions under the repeated attacks of the stinger arm. Link was thinking about breaking cover, his position there untenable at best, when suddenly the attacks stopped. Cautiously, he peered through a hole in his defensive wall, recently made by a stinger attack.

He quickly realised what had happened, even as the creature screeched in frustration once more. Saria had returned with her orb, and was using it to great effect distracting the Gohma from its mission to kill Link. He watched the orb's dance as the great spider tried to fend it off, ducking and weaving, as if it didn't want the orb anywhere near its eye...

Sheathing the Kokiri Sword, Link reached for his slingshot and a handful of the deku seed rich earth beneath his feet. Then, with the greatest of care, he took aim.

The shot landed square in the centre of his target, the yellow eye seemed to spin wildly, and the Gohma's entire body convulsed. Stunned, it wobbled violently to one side, slamming into the nearest column of roots, almost destroying the entire thing as its bulk crashed through the weak rotten wood.

It recovered quickly, and evidently it decided that it had had enough of the intruders that had entered its domain, because it took to the ceiling and fled. Link, seeing this, rushed out of his hiding place with another seed ready in his slingshot. He fired it off at the retreating monster, but it bounced harmlessly off its armour.

'Saria!' he called, not taking his eyes off the Gohma as it scuttled unnaturally away on the ceiling. 'Use your fire! Herd it back this way!'

Saria, somewhere hopefully safe and out of sight, evidently heard her friend's request, because the orb which had been hovering stationary above Link's head as the Gohma ran away, now hurtled off after the armoured spider. Link, realising that he'd be out of light very soon, found a relatively safe place to crouch whilst he waited for the Gohma's return.

It didn't take too long. The Gohma, apparently convinced that the shock it had been given was at the hands of the fiery green orb, was easy enough to shepherd back towards where Link lay in waiting.

Despite the speed at which the Gohma moved, Link found it easy enough to find his target – the glowing yellow eye that hung helpfully below the spider's main bulk. He hit his target on his second shot.

The result was ten times more marked this time. As the convulsions rocked the armoured arachnid's body, it reflexively let go of the roots that held it to the ceiling of the cavern. With a great crash, the body smashed into the floor of the underground forest, the Gohma's momentum causing it to roll and smash its way through more than twenty feet of dense root and rotting foliage, ending in a collision with another root column.

Less than five meters from where the Gohma came to a halt, Link didn't even pause to think as he grabbed the Kokiri Sword from over his shoulder and ran at the flailing creature.

It was even bigger than he thought, he realised as he reached the first flailing appendage. Without pausing, Link threw the sword directly at it, the blade easily cutting deep through the armoured skin. A second swing, and the appendage was severed. It convulsed on the ground, nerve endings firing away as it died, and Link stepped backwards as the body of the Gohma scrambled to its remaining limbs. As it towered above him, Link realised two things. First, that he was completely defenceless against the bulk of this creature, even with one limb missing, and secondly, that he knew which limb he had severed.

The poisonous one...

Without it's most dangerous limb, the great spider launched itself bodily at the small green humanoid before it, mandibles grasping the air in anticipation of having its revenge on the being. A gleaming metal weapon was waved in its direction, and it noted with detached intelligence that the green fluid on the weapon was its own blood, but rage and pain had overridden all intelligent thought. The green being must die.

Link scrambled backwards as best he could across the damp and root-strewn floor of the cavern, waving the Kokiri Sword forlornly before him whenever he sensed the spider making another lunge, but knew realistically that his time was up. Any minute now it would simply reach out with one of its other legs and crush him where he led, or one of those gooey mandibles would catch hold of his arm, and he would be forcibly swallowed down that gaping hole it used as a mouth, eaten alive.

Neither particularly appealed to him, but he didn't see much alternative. Then, suddenly, mercifully, the glowing orb of fire reappeared, and the Gohma flinched away from its pursuit of him. Aware that he might only have moments, Link felt in his pocket for his slingshot, intending to put a seed in the thing's eye. Hopefully it would give him long enough to find another good hiding space. However, his pocket, usually so reliably full of slingshot, was empty safe for a couple of spare deku seeds. He chucked them at the Gohma, partly out of desperation, and partly out of despair. They had no effect on the thrashing spider above him.

By this time, the Gohma had successfully recognised the orb for what it was – just a ball of flame. It could sting, but not badly, and it had more important enemies to kill first. It turned its full attention back to the green human before it.

Link was getting desperate, finding a deku nut in another pocket, he hurled that at the Gohma. It struck the creature on one of its flailing mandibles, and a small explosion resulted, but without effect. Link felt like crying – short of poking the thing in the eye with a deku stick, he was out of weapons.

His hand grasped the grip of the Kokiri Sword tighter. Maybe not.

The Gohma sensed the desperation of the human beneath it, and went in for the kill. It sensed also when the frightened little boy changed, becoming more... courageous... but it was past the point of caring and sped on with its finishing blow. Bravery or not, the human stood no chance now.

Link drew the sword back. He would only have one shot at this, and he couldn't wait for the thing to come to him either. The mandibles were larger than he was, he'd never get close enough to kill it. No, he had one shot, and this was it.

Bracing his feet against the roots beneath them, he put all his remaining strength into this arms... and threw the Kokiri Sword up at the Gohma.

The Gohma never knew what hit it. One minute it was attacking with a fury that burned with all its hatred of this little green man-child, and then next... peace. It stumbled, one, two faltering steps, before slumping to the side, the Kokiri Sword embedded up to the hilt in its one solitary eye.

It came to rest with a large thump, bits of splintered rotten wood flying in all directions as its massive bulk smashed through the undergrowth. It spasmed once, then lay still.

Saria, from her hiding place not ten meters away, was the first to move. 'Link?' she said tentatively, surveying the area for her friend. She had a horrible suspicion that he had been in the vicinity of that massive body as it fell. 'Link?' she called again. 'Link, it's Saria. Can you hear me?'

For a few horrifying seconds, there was no reply, the only sounds coming from the creaking of the rotten wood as it adjusted to the new body amongst it. Then, with a small cough, Link's beautiful green-hatted head peaked out over a root.

'Saria?' he said dazedly, 'Are you okay?'

Saria felt like laughing. 'Am I okay?' she said incredulously as she made her way over to the boy, 'Am _I_ okay? Of course _I'm_ okay, I'm not the one it almost crushed!'

Link blinked stupidly as he looked around him. 'Oh.' he said softly, spotting the slumped and dead form of the Gohma Queen.

'C'mon, get up.' Saria said eventually, offering her hand to the boy as she reached his position. 'We need to...'

Suddenly the cavern filled with a blinding blue light that seemed to emanate from everywhere and everything. Through narrowed and blinking eyes, Saria and Link watched as the Queen Gohma's body appeared to disintegrate before them. Bit by bit, tiny flakes few off like grains of sand until all that was left was Link's sword, floating in mid air where Gohma's body had suspended it. Then there was another flash and like a the waves that a drop of water makes in a pool, originating at the Kokiri Sword, the blue flash emanated outwards, destroying the darkened and blackened wood as it went.

Moments later the blue light faded, leaving in its wake a glade as lush as any in the Lost Forest, completely unspoilt by the darkness that had once touched it. Link and Saria could hardly believe their eyes. They were brought out of their thoughts by the 'thunk' of the Kokiri Sword embedding itself blade-first into the dark, rich soil.

'Wow,' said Saria, looking around at the cavern. She bent to smell one of the fragrant flowers that dotted the floor now that the rotten wood and sludge had disappeared. 'Lovely.' commented simply.

Link could understand her sentiment well enough. From a hollow of death and decay had sprung a small slice of midnight paradise. Lit only by Saria's green flame floating above their heads, it seemed even more stunning than it probably was, filled with an ethereal beauty as the shadows flickered and dew gleamed in the dancing light.

'I could stay here forever.' Saria said softly, looking around wistfully.

Link strolled over to retrieve his sword. 'I don't think we have that option.' he said. Then he grabbed the hilt, and the world went blue-white again...

* * *

><p>It felt like flying, he decided later. The odd sensation of not being on solid ground, but not falling exactly either. It was as if some great being had picked him up with hands softer than butterfly wings, guiding him through the whiteness in a direction that was neither up, down, forwards, backwards or any direction that a living being could describe.<p>

When his senses returned to him, he realised that he was standing back in the Great Deku Tree's Clearing, standing before the Great Deku Tree himself, sword still in hand. Beside him, Saria stood with the same kind of bewildered look that he was sure was evident on his face too.

The one thing that came to him was the fact that it was now fully dark, the sun presumably having set some time ago. The only light came from the full moon that was just visible through the Great Deku Tree's canopy, and the fireflies that trailed gracefully through the air in groups or individually. It was surprisingly peaceful.

'_Ye have done well._'

Link started, and by the look in Saria's eyes, he knew that she had heard the Great Deku Tree's voice inside her head too.

'_Ye, valiant of heart and spirit of the forest, have vanquished the evil from within me. Alas, it was already too late for me, even as thee began your quest._'

'Too late?' Saria breathed. 'You mean...'

'_Yes, little one, my time hath ended on this earth. But, before I go, I have time to tell thee a story, a story that has bearing on both thy lives. Will thou listen to me?_'

Link didn't need to ask Saria's opinion on the matter. He answered without hesitation. 'Of course, Great Deku Tree. We will listen to any guidance you would give us.'

'_Then settle down, little ones, for this is not a story to rush over._

'_It begins long ago, back when there was nothing, before even time had begun. Three goddesses descended on the chaos that was Hyrule:_

'_Din, the goddess of Power, the Creator. Nayru, the goddess of Wisdom, the Law Maker. And Farore, goddess of Courage, the Life Giver._

'_Together they set upon themselves the task of bringing order to the world: Din, with her strength, brought together and cultivated the land, sculpting the mountains and valleys, the oceans and the sky._

'_Nayru, with her wisdom, created the laws to which all things must abide, and with these laws the wind, the tides and the heat of the sun came to be._

'_And Farore, with her overriding sense of love, created all the living things that would inhabit Hyrule, from Human and Hylian, to beetle and fish. She poured her very soul into these creatures, so that they might know compassion and love for each other, and for the gods that made their existence possible._

'_This, ye may know already, for the children of the forest I have always encouraged to understand their origins, but there is more that ye may not. Listen carefully, for what I tell ye now is of the utmost importance, and is not only the legacy of this world, but impacts on both your lives directly._

'_The three great goddesses, with their labours now completed, departed to the heavens, never to set foot upon their beloved Hyrule again. At the point of their departure from this world, however, legend tells of an artefact, left behind in their wake – the Triforce. Made up of three golden triangles, one representing each goddess, the Triforce has become the symbol of order and law in Hyrule, the very essence of our culture._

'_The Triforce, the last creation of the great goddesses, is said to be hidden away in the Sacred Realm, safe from those who would wish to use its awesome power for their own means. It is for possession of that artefact, that sacred icon, that I was so cruelly afflicted with this curse._

'_A wicked man from the desert far to the west, who would claim the Triforce for himself, did come here to my glade, demanding that I give him information on the location of the Sacred Realm – the __resting place of the Triforce. When I did refuse, he used his vile, sorcerous powers on me, turning my very life essence rotten, and planting seeds of evil creatures inside my very heart. If I had succumbed completely to this curse, he would have had but to return to this place to find the answers he sought, for I would have turned as dark and evil as he._

'_But thanks to you, brave Link, passionate Saria, stouthearted Feye, I was able to retain my mind, if not my body._

'_And so, I have now a quest for you, young Link. You must go to Hyrule Castle, where you must seek out the Princess of Destiny. Tell her of what has happened here. Tell her of the stranger from the Desert, in his black armour, who seeks the Sacred Realm and the Triforce so desperately that he would destroy the last living Guardian of old. Lastly, you must bring this stone to her..._'

And with those words, a green light flickered into being before Link. It glimmered and shone in the sunlight, and suddenly Link realised that it wasn't a light, but a beautifully cut jewel, encased in a golden decoration that looked more grown than manufactured to fit it. It hovered in the air, and somehow Link knew he had been destined to carry this stone. He held out his hand to take it.

'_This is the Kokiri Emerald, the Sacred Stone of the Forest. This was the true aim of the desert stranger, for it is key in his plans. Keep it safe, I entreat thee._'

The Great Deku Tree groaned, its branches shuddered and shook, as if under strain from a gale. Golden brown leaves dropped in their hundreds. The light around the Kokiri Emerald flickered and faded and the stone fell into Link's outstretched hand. It was warm to the touch, but Link quickly forgot it as the Great Deku Tree let out a great groaning shake.

'_My time grows short._' said the Great Deku Tree and, sensing the distraught nature of the three creatures before him, added, '_But, do not grieve for me, for I have been able to tell you of these important matters. This, you Link, are Hyrule's final hope._

'_Go now, to Hyrule Castle and find your Princess..._' The Great Tree faltered and more leaves fell.

'Great Deku Tree...' Saria cried, tears freely falling. Flittering above her head, Feye seemed in a similar state of distress.

'_Hush now, child. I have lived a good life, and all is not as final as it often seems. Hold true, and ye shall see me again._'

'We will, Great Deku Tree.' Saria said, fervently believing it with all her heart. 'Always.'

'_And so ye shall..._' more golden brown leaves fell, along with the clatter of the odd branch and bow as the upper levels of the Great Deku Tree began to fade from life. '_Link, I have one final warning to give:_

'_Do not allow the man from the desert to lay his hands on the sacred Triforce... Thou must never suffer that man, with his evil heart, to enter the Sacred Realm of legend... That evil man who cast the death curse upon me and sapped my power..._

'_The future depends on thee, Link..._'

There was a great sigh, and the entire meadow seemed to move with the last breath of the sacred tree at its centre.

'_Thou... art... courageous..._'

Then there was silence in the meadow. No wind stirred the branches, nor even the falling leaves made a sound in reverence to their deceased creator.

'Good bye, Great Deku Tree.' Saria whispered, a solitary tear, the last she had to give, rolling down her cheek.

Link took her hand gently. It was cold and clammy to the touch but squeezed his back gratefully. 'Come on,' he said softly. 'Let's go.'

Saria nodded and allowed herself to be led out of the Great Deku Tree's clearing.

* * *

><p><em>And that's Chapter four. There will be a little break in the daily updates from here on in as I write and edit the chapters as they come out in line with a more normal storywriting timescale. I'll likely update one chapter at a time, or perhaps I'll try holding back chapters to releace them in a quick one-a-day series as I did with these first few. I haven't decided yet.<em>

_In the meantime, I'd be happy for any feedback on these chapters. I don't have a Beta (and to be quite honest, I'm not looking for one as I tend to work better solo when it comes to writing) but I do welcome and value the opinions of anyone who reads my stories. As I've said at the footnote of previous pages, these chapters are just trial chapters to check the content and style are what people want to read. Therefore, if you have any comments, please feel free to either review via the button below, or PM me via my profile page._

_Many thanks, and I hope you've enjoyed the story so far._

_Chris ~ a.k.a 'Fensta'_


	5. Hyrule Field

"And yet, pause to remember those who do not have your faith,

for they are the ones truly lost.

For without faith, how do we know in which direction to steer our life?"

_The Book of Nayru, 3:1:28_

* * *

><p>The walk back to Kokiri Village was made in silence. Saria's clammy hand grasped firmly in Link's more steady one as they wound their way back through the Lost Woods. Saria was as quiet as death, mirroring, Link thought, the curious stillness of the forest. Where the Lost Woods would usually be a busy place, with the sounds of life all around, it was the complete opposite as they trudged through it. It was as if the entire forest was aware of the Great Deku Tree's passing as was in mourning for him, he who had been their creator and protector for as long as any tree standing could remember. Although Link had always found it difficult to accept the sentient nature of the forest like his Kokiri brothers and sisters had taught him, he had never felt closer to the forest than he did that night.<p>

The only sounds Link could hear as he guided a numb Saria along were the sounds of the broken twigs and crushed leafs beneath their feet. It was a solemn sound, and Link found he didn't much like it at all.

In an effort to distract himself, he let his thoughts drifted back to what the Great Deku Tree had said to him:

"_You must go to Hyrule Castle, where you must seek out the Princess of Destiny. Tell her of what has happened here. Tell her of the stranger from the Desert, in his black armour, who seeks the Sacred Realm and the Triforce so desperately that he would destroy the last living Guardian of old. Lastly, you must bring this stone to her..._"

Link put his hand into his pocket and took out the stone. It was still warm to the touch, and now that Link was more clear of mind, he could see that it emanated a soft green light that danced across his palm. The jewel wasn't as large as he'd initially estimated when he'd seen it hanging in the air before him earlier, although it still had a sizeable weight to it. The stone sat comfortably in his ten year old palm, and if he clenched his fist he could easily close his fingers around it so that it would almost be completely hidden.

'Pretty.' Saria commented idly, and Link realised that she had been brought out of her daze by the sight of the gem.

'It's really warm.' Link said, glad to distract his friend from dwelling on the Great Deku Tree's demise. He held the stone out to her. 'Here, feel for yourself.'

Saria shook her head. 'No, Link. The Great Deku Tree entrusted it to you. You're now the stone's guardian.' Despite her words, Link could see her eyes boring into the stone, regarding it with the kind of reverence that Link would have only given the most holy of relics. He wondered if she knew something more about the stone than he did. 'I think it would be best if you were the only one who handles it from now on.'

'But the Great Deku Tree said that I'm meant to give it to the 'princess'...' Link said, somewhat puzzled by the nature of her words. 'I shouldn't have it for very long.'

Saria turned her emerald eyes on his, a small knowing smile on her lips. 'I wouldn't be surprised if she sees things the same as I do.'

She lapsed into silence and despite Link's best efforts, would not elaborate further. Eventually Link gave up and a moment later he found himself stepping into one of the larger clearings of Kokiri Village.

It was silent, just like the rest of the forest, although that was hardly a surprise to the pair. All around them, Kokiri still slept on the bed of soft plant-life that had sprouted where deku seeds had hit the ground, blissful in their ignorance of the fate of the Father of the Forest. Link initially suggested that perhaps they should wake the sleeping figures up and tell them of the Great Deku Tree's fate, but Saria and Feye overruled him.

'Let them sleep.' Saria had said softly, her sad eyes peering down at one of the Know-it-all Brothers as he fidgeted in his slumber. 'They'll have time enough to mourn the Great Deku Tree tomorrow.'

Link deferred to her judgement without thinking, although he would later see that he agreed with the decision when he thought back on it. This would probably be their last good night's sleep for a while, after all.

'If we're going to leave tonight, we should get some things together.' Saria said eventually, moving towards her house. Link blinked at her.

'_We_?' he said incredulously as he stepped nimbly over a sleeping Rinn, the general store owner. 'What do you mean? You're not coming with me!'

He hadn't meant to be quite as firm with his voice as it came out, but three Kokiri snoozing nearby all mumbled and turned over in their sleep. One blue-coloured fairy appeared out of a mane of blond hair to shush Link, and then promptly disappeared again before surveying the results of her request.

Saria responded in a much calmer and controlled tone that elicited no such response, although there was a note of steel in it that Link found just as forceful as any shout. 'The Great Deku Tree, may his soul rest with the Goddesses, gave you a task to complete, Link. That you complete it was his last request on this earth...' she paused and seemed to collect himself. '...and I'll be damned if I let you wander off into Hyrule alone.'

She softened her features and managed a smirk, 'Knowing your sense of direction, you'd end up in Gerudo territory before sunset.'

Link frowned. '"Garoodo" territory?

'Oh, Link.' Saria despaired, 'You need me more than you think.'

* * *

><p>Packing took less time than Link suspected it would. His home, more a glorified tree-house made from the hollow of a trunk than a free standing structure in its own right, held few possessions that he felt were worth taking into Hyrule. To be honest, he didn't really know 'what' he was supposed to take, and so grabbed a few scraps of food, a spare tunic and leggings and rapped them all in his warmest blanket. Rolling it up, he shoved it under his arm. He then took one long look around his one room home, lit by a solitary candle held in a wall bracket near the door, and wondered idly how long he would be gone. He put a hand on his pocket, feeling for the surprisingly comforting weight of the Kokiri Emerald beneath his fingertips. Surely delivering a stone to a princess wouldn't take too long. Couple of weeks at most...<p>

Link swallowed unconsciously. A couple of weeks sounded like a long time. He'd never been away from the village for more than a couple of nights, back when he was stupid enough to wander off into the forest and get lost to places that even Saria found hard to find. And even then, he had been within the Lost Forest, a place that the Kokiri cared for and therefore it cared for them in return. He might have been away from his house and village, but he still belonged, and he was still afforded the protection of the Great Deku Tree, as were all the forest's denizens.

Link sighed. But the Great Deku Tree was gone now, and the forest was completely unprotected for the first time in its existence. As were the Kokiri. Perhaps being outside the forest was just as safe as anywhere else now, but it was still an uncomfortable prospect.

And what of Saria? Link was tempted even now to refuse her help. How hard would it be to find Hyrule Castle anyway? It wasn't like there were many castles in Hyrule... At least, none that Link knew of.

Then again, Link didn't honestly know much about what lay beyond the forest, and up until about an hour ago, he'd had no intentions of knowing more of the world outside of the Lost Forest than that what lay immediately at its border. Finding the tree-line was one thing, crossing it was something completely different.

'Link!' Saria's voice called through the heavy sheet that acted as Link's front door. Link guessed that she was somewhere at ground level, waiting beside the ladder he used for access to his house. 'Are you ready yet? We need to get going. It's almost morning!'

Link took one last look around, his eyes catching briefly on a pile of discarded and slightly dirty tunics in the corner, his unmade cot and his favourite earthen jug, before extinguishing the candle above his head with a pinch of his fingers and stepping swiftly out.

He'd be back soon enough, he was sure of it.

Saria was waiting for him at the foot of his ladder. Over her shoulder was slung one strap of a rather spacious linen rucksack, a dried grass bedroll slung beneath it. She shot Link a weak smile before looking to the eastern skyline. Link noted the slightly purple tinge as the first rays of light started to filter out the stars from the sky.

Link jumped the last three rungs of the ladder, as was his custom, and landed with a soft explosion of dust and dry grass. In the silver light of the moon, Saria was holding out something for him as he straightened.

'What's that?' Link said, reaching out to take the object. The moment his hand touched the object, he thought himself a fool for not recognising it earlier.

'It's a Deku Shield, silly." Saria said in what Link suspected was a falsely cheerful tone of voice. If she wasn't as worried about leaving the forest as he was, Link would be very surprised. 'Finest Kokiri workmanship. Doubt we'll find much like it in Hyrule.

Link snorted softly. 'Finest Kokiri workmanship? You mean the know-it-all brothers knocked it together in a matter of minutes with a combination of deku sap, wood glue and nails that they'd stolen from the last big person who came through here?' Link passed his right hand through the loops on the back and gave the shield a little shake. It felt surprisingly solid. 'It'll be a miracle if it doesn't fall apart when it rains...'

Saria growled. 'If you don't want it, I can always put it back in Rinn's shop. He always forgets to lock the door, so I doubt he'll notice if I break in twice in one night...'

'No, no...' Link said, backtracking quickly, 'I'll keep it. Never know when it might come in useful...'

Saria harrumphed, but didn't comment further on the shield. Instead, she grabbed Link's supply-laden blanket from under his arm and shoved the contents unceremoniously into the top of her linen rucksack. She pulled a draw-string on the top and shoved the blanket back in Link's general direction.

'Put this back, I've already packed warm blankets for the both of us. When you're done, meet me at the western edge of the village.'

Link frowned, 'Why? Where are you going?'

'I forgot something.' she said simply, already walking away. 'Just meet me at the western edge, okay?'

She didn't wait for a response, but ran off towards her house. She'd left the rucksack, probably deliberately.

Link groaned.

* * *

><p>The forest was just as dark and silent as it had been on their walk back from the Great Deku Tree, and it was very hard not to fall back into the melancholy of that walk. Link, sensing this, attempted to make himself feel better and keep Saria occupied by asking questions about the world outside.<p>

It turned out that she had quite a good knowledge of Hyrule, and when she didn't Feye was able to step in with details that even made Saria's eyes wide. However, at times Link thought it sounded like Feye had swallowed a book, rather than actually having witnessed some of the people and places that she spoke about.

'How do you know all this stuff?' Link asked her eventually, when she'd finished explaining the layout of Castle City, including which areas to avoid if Link didn't want to get mugged. 'I didn't know fairies could ever leave the Forest. Saria certainly can't!'

It was common knowledge that Kokiri would die if they ever left the forest. Link had always assumed that had been true, but if the Great Deku Tree had asked him to leave the forest, it must simply have been a clever story to stop the Kokiri wandering off. Link hoped so anyway, and for that reason was trying very hard not to think about it.

Although Link's eyes weren't quite sharp enough to see Feye's tiny facial expressions, he imagined that she looked quite uncomfortable. '_Fairies have a... connection..._' she said falteringly, '_...it's hard to explain... Oh I wish Navi was here!_'

Link's ears pricked up. 'Navi? Who's Navi?' It didn't escape Link's notice that Saria was looking decidedly uncomfortable at the question. 'Saria? Who's Navi?'

'Oh, Link...' Saria sighed, 'You weren't ever meant to find out.'

Link didn't like the sound of that, and it took a number of moments for him to realise that he'd stopped walking.

'What?' he said, his eyes flicking between Feye's sparking form and the pained expression on Saria's face. He felt an emotion building within him that wasn't easily identifiable, but he didn't like it. 'What wasn't I mean to find out?'

'_Navi... Navi was going to be your fairy, Link._' Feye said softly.

Saria stepped towards Link, her hand outstretched, but Link didn't see her.

His own fairy... He'd be a real Kokiri! Not that he wasn't before, he'd never doubted it, after all, he lived in Kokiri Village, was protected by the Great Deku Tree, even spoken to him now! He was definitely a Kokiri...

Still, having a fairy would have meant a lot.

That would have shown Mido!

'What happened?' Link said suddenly, coming out of his daze, 'You said "was _going_ to be". What happened?'

Saria looked to her fairy, who drooped dramatically in the air. '_As you know, fairies have to volunteer to become guardians of a... Kokiri._' she said, catching her self just in time, lest she give even more away. '_The Great Deku Tree believed that it was time for you to have your own fairy and asked Navi if she would like to be yours._'

Link's shoulders sagged. 'She didn't want me, right?' Saria put her hand on his arm in sympathy, but Feye wasn't finished.

'_Not at all!_' she said shrilly, darting about in front of Link. '_She thought you were a bit reckless and hot headed, but then, that's what I think too._' Saria shot her fairy a warning look. '_But she liked your spirit. She was really happy to be your guardian!_'

'Then where is she?' Link asked somewhat forlornly. 'If she wanted to be my fairy so badly, why isn't she here with us now?'

'_She was sent on a mission._' Feye replied, '_Just before the man from the desert came, the Great Deku Tree was concerned with a darkness he'd sensed from elsewhere in the forest. Navi was the Great Deku Tree's bravest and most trusted fairy, so he sent her to investigate._'

She lost a couple inches of altitude with a slump. '_That was two weeks ago. Navi hasn't been seen since, and the fairies that were sent to search for her didn't find anything._' Feye sighed. '_It's like she, and the darkness that the Great Deku Tree had sensed, just disappeared. Poof! Without a trace._

'_Maybe she found whatever it was, and drove it off into the wilder parts of the forest. Or maybe there's something else going on. She might have encountered the desert man, and if she did..._' Feye's voice turned worried, and Saria winced. '_I don't fancy her chances. Navi was brave, but she'd be no match against magic powerful enough to kill the Great Deku Tree._'

Link's head fell. So that was it... For however long, he'd had a fairy, but not any more. 'Could she still come back?' he asked Feye hopefully.

'_Of course, Link. And if she did, I'm sure she'd still want to be your fairy. It's just..._' She looked towards the edge of the forest. Link caught her meaning.

'If I'm not in the Lost Forest, she won't be able to find me...'

Saria rubbed Link's arm comfortingly. 'I'm sorry, Link.'

But Link shook his head, determined to be upbeat. 'I'll be back soon, Saria. You just wait and see. Then I'll be a real Kokiri like you.' He readjusted the rucksack on his back and squared his shoulders. 'And the quicker we get to the princess, the sooner we can get back, so we should get going.'

Link walked off into the forest without looking back. Saria and Feye watched after him with mixed expressions of exasperation and pride in their friend. Eventually Saria giggled and called out to Link.

'Wrong way, Link! Hyrule is this way!'

* * *

><p>They reached the edge of the Lost Forest just as the first rays of light spilled over the vast planes of Hyrule Field. It was as different from the close, compact feeling of the forest as any of them could imagine, with only a smattering of trees every now and again to break up what was otherwise a vast expanse of grassland.<p>

It was the height of summer, and even though the sun had just started to rise, Link could tell that it would get extremely hot without the shade that the forest usually provided. The grass on the plains had already started to turn to a straw-like colour, and in some low-lying places the sun had even burnt away the vegetation so that only the dusty red earth was visible. The only exceptions to this were where the sparsely distributed copses of trees provided cover.

The small copses of trees were also major hubs for a variety of birds that seemed to congregate in their branches. Some shot about from place to place, dancing in the early morning light, whilst high above them larger birds of pray circled lazily in the cloudless sky or hovered in place on updraughts as they waited for pray to reveal themselves in the long grasses. Meanwhile on the plains a loose herd of wild horses was docilely grazing on the breast of a nearby rise in the land, and every so often Link's eyes would spot the movement of a rabbit as it darted from hidey-hole to hidey-hole.

It was a breathtaking sight.

The sun itself was hidden to them through the Lost Forest behind them, and Saria declared that to be approximately East, and that Castle Town, their destination, would be somewhere to the West. Link didn't dare ask where she'd gotten that information, worried that perhaps she has asked the Know-it-all Brothers. Whilst Link had great respect for the brothers, they were often too embarrassed to admit when they didn't know something, and would therefore make up an answer that 'sounded' right, and the likelihood that they knew the geography of Hyrule better than any other Kokiri was... slight.

Despite Link's worries, which he didn't air, they set off in the general direction of West, using the occasional vegetation as markers, and the occasional sight of the sun, once it was visible over the forest, to make sure they stayed on course.

It was tiring, dusty, thirsty and occasionally smelly, as they found out when they passed a little too close to a herd of cows. The only excitement came when they strayed a little too close to what they thought was a type of tree, but was actually a hostile type of bush that Feye was able to identify as a 'Peahat'. To the complete surprise of all three, the lower leaves, which were at first were pliable and soft as any other, became stiff and sharp, and then entire branches began spinning at such a rate that Link was easily convinced that they would make mincemeat of any part of himself that they happened to catch. The group quickly moved to what they considered a safe distance, at which point they had their third and final surprise. The lower branches, which by this point were spinning around the base of the plant at a rate of knots, began to spin even faster, so fast that they created a wind strong enough to lift the entire bush from the earth in a cloud of dust and leaves.

Covering they eyes, Link and Saria were slow to realise that the peahat, in addition to being airborne, was also gliding steadily across the ground at them, angling its sharpened branches for maximum damage. It was Feye who alerted them, flying back and forth in front of their eyes so that, even in the dust storm created by the peahat, they could not mistake her agitation.

They retreated quickly to a nearby tumbledown wall that looked like it would have once marked out a boundary between pastures. Finding a place where the wall was more intact than not, they jumped over and hid themselves. Hating the fact that he was hiding, Link got his slingshot from his pocket and a hand full of stones from the ground, ready to fire back, but Saria pulled him down.

'Don't! It'll know where we are!' she hissed.

'We can't just hide!' he replied. But they could, and they did, and eventually the peahat glided away out of earshot. Only then did Saria let Link rise with his slingshot ready.

'When you've got something more than a peashooter,' she said, 'then you might have a chance of besting something like that.' They could just see it, gliding down a shallow valley with its trail of dust behind it. 'Until then, you need to pick your battles, Link. You're not invincible.'

Link grumpily agreed, although Saria thought it likely that Link wouldn't learn this particular lesson until he managed to get himself into proper trouble. She hoped it would be with something that he actually had a chance defeating.

* * *

><p>They moved on, always westwards, and at about midday they took shelter under a more normal-looking tree to have some lunch. A small stream ran nearby, and Link took the opportunity to refill their water supply.<p>

'I don't like the look of those clouds,' he said, ducking into the shade of their tree with two filled water skins. He indicated towards the dark brooding clouds to the south, as tall as a mountain, their tops might have been fluffy and white, but the base was one mass of dark, threatening looking cloud that already had a veil of grey rain falling beneath it. Due to the silence of the plains, the rumbling sound of thunder could just be made out over the nearby running water. 'It looks to be heading our way.'

Saria's face betrayed her concern. 'I was going to suggest that we walk through the night to reach Castle Town, to get there early tomorrow morning, but I don't fancy walking through a thunder storm.' she looked about and pointed. 'We'll head towards those hills, there are some ranches over there that might put us up for the night.'

'But Saria,' Link said, having noticed that his friend had pointed directly towards the gathering storm, 'Shouldn't we go that way?' he said, pointing north, towards the ominous looking volcano in the distance. 'Away from the storm? There are hills over there too, and forests!'

Saria grinned, despite herself. 'I've been watching that storm for a while, Link, and I reckon it'll be on us by sundown at the latest. Those hills,' she indicated the hills to the north, where Link was pointing, 'will take us another day to reach at least, whilst the ranches shouldn't be more than a couple of hours away.'

Link shook his head and slumped into a sitting position. His body language clearly told Saria that he had deferred to her argument. 'How do you know all these things?' he asked, crunching a large bite off the top of a carrot Saria had packed for their lunch.

Saria shrugged. 'It's hard to explain. It's like I just... 'know' things. This land, Hyrule. I have a connection to it that I can't quite put into words. It's like my connection with the forest, just...' she paused and looked longingly over her shoulder, back towards the Lost Forest, even though it was now out of sight behind a number of the grassy hills they'd traversed that morning. '...just... oh, I don't know at all!'

She seemed annoyed at her own confusion, and so Link decided to let the topic lie. The rest of their lunch past quickly, possibly because they were now both watching the coming storm with a growing sense of dread and were keen to set off again.

Their trek resumed in short order and the pair set off in the direction that Saria believed the ranches to be. To pass the time, Link asked her what sort of things people might 'ranch', to which she laughed and pointed out a number of the seemingly free-roaming herds of horse and cow that dotted the hills. Link wished the Great Deku Tree could have injected some knowledge into his brain before sending him on this quest into an unknown land, but was keen to learn on his own and ended up pestering Saria with questions for the next hour or so. She knew the answers to most the basic questions he asked, but declared that he'd have to find a local to answer some of the more complicated questions like 'how do you teach a horse to respond to riding commands?' and 'how do you make a saddle?'.

The first drop of rain was felt just as the sun dipped within one of its own diameters from the horizon. Ironically, it was the smallest member of their group that felt it, poor Feye popping out of Saria's hair to ask her charge about if they would find a ranch soon only to get hit by a drop that Link decided must have been equivalent to him having a bucket tipped over his head. He therefore attempted to suppress his amusement, although he was sure Saria noticed his sniggering.

They quickened their pace towards a nearby hill that Saria decided would give them a good view of the surrounding area. From there, they would hopefully spot a nearby ranch, or perhaps a rider that they could flag down. It took them a good quarter of an hour, and by that time the heavens had properly opened. To their good fortune, there was a large tree at the summit that they could take some semblance of shelter under, but it made Saria nervous.

'This is a thunderstorm, Link, and this tree has been hit before.' she said glancing upwards into the canopy. Link followed her gaze and noticed a number of dark patches where lightning had obviously struck in previous storms. He felt his relief at finding a dry spot diminishing rapidly. He peered out at the landscape before them with a sense of urgency he didn't realise he was feeling.

There was nothing. Apart from a rather soggy herd of cattle that was lying on the more sheltered side of a nearby hill, the plains were just as boring and featureless as they had been all day. Link felt his heart drop.

'Bummer.' he said. Beside him, Saria nodded. She slumped to a sitting position on grass that was mercifully dry, having been protected by the tree's canopy.

'I was so sure we should go this way...' she said dejectedly. Link put his hand on her shoulder.

'Don't be like that, Saria.' he said softly, 'From what you said, it didn't sound like we had much of a choice either way.'

He looked out towards the sun where it hung in the sky, just waiting to dart below the horizon, and then to the landscape before him.

'Look, we've got maybe another twenty minutes of daylight left,' he said in what he hoped was an encouraging voice, 'We could easily make it over to that hilltop in that time!' he pointed west, where another peak in the low rises about them sat, slightly higher than where they were now, and not too far off. 'From there we could see even further!'

Link looked up towards the burnt parts of the tree, just as a flash of light lit the entire landscape. He swallowed heavily. 'Plus, whilst I like being dry, I think I like being not being struck by lightning more.'

Saria managed a weak smile and, after a moment of thought, raised her arm to indicate that Link should help her up.

'Lead on, oh fearless leader.' she said, and Link thought she might have even meant it.

Half an hour later, with the sun firmly below the horizon and feeling wetter than fish, they made it to the slightly higher hillock. Lightning had become more frequent and Link had started to question his thought process when he reasoned earlier than not being under a tree, but higher, would be a good way of avoiding being struck. That line of thought was only strengthened every time he looked over his shoulder to discover that the tree they had been sheltering under hadn't been hit yet.

Link was first to the top and leant forwards on his knees to catch his breath whilst he waited for Saria, who's strength had started to fade rapidly, to catch up. He peered back at his friend and was encouraged to see that she was only a couple of meters back. Feye was flying in close proximity to Saria's ear and was undoubtedly giving her words of encouragement.

Navi popped into Link's mind before he could prevent it, and he felt a pang of sadness at his lost fairy. He quickly suppressed the feeling and busied himself with more relevant matters, like finding shelter that wasn't also a lightning rod.

Wiping a wet lock of blond hair out of his eyes, Link peered into the gloom...

...and almost fell over.

There, at the bottom of the shallow valley before him, was a large building lit on two floors from within by a welcoming orange glow. Surrounding this building were a collection of squat, wide buildings and a large open area where Link could see horses being herded urgently about by people on foot, and surrounding all of it was an imposing wooden palisade. Above the entrance was what looked like a name plaque, but Link couldn't quite make out what it said at this distance. Link didn't know what ranches looked like, but he imagined that this might be typical.

'Oh, thank Nayru...' Saria said heavily as she came to stand beside Link. She was extremely out of breath and Link instinctively put his arm around her shoulders to help stabilise her as she swayed on the spot. She smiled weakly up at him. 'Give me the forest any day.' she said.

Link grinned and looked back down the hill. That was exactly what he intended to do with her once this storm passed; send her back to Kokiri Village, where she belonged, but first they had to get to shelter. He looped his arm under her armpits and half supporting, half carrying, he led his friend down towards the ranch, and to safety.

* * *

><p><em>So that was chapter five for you. It felt a little slow to write, and Link might seem a little dim, but this is quite deliberate. Take into account of where he's lived his entire life and you might understand why we now have someone who is quite literally ignorant of many things that 'we', having grown up in the real world, find common knowledge. There's a possibility that he's never seen a horse before, never been able to study the clouds or the sun properly from inside his forest world. Stone buildings, roads, 'normal' clothes... all these things are potentially new to him. Never fear though, he's a quick learner.<em>

_As for how Saria knows so much, take a look at the opening quote from one of Hyrule's holy texts, and that should help you come to an answer._

_Finally, I hope this clears up some of the questions as to where Navi is. I won't comment on her true fate, you may or may not see her again in this fic, but if you do, it won't be for a while. Sorry about that if you like her._

_That's all I have to say at this point. If you have any comments on the fic so far, or any questions that you need answering urgently, or you simply feel like a chat for any other reason, feel free to review and I'll get back to you, or PM me from my profile._

_Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy it._

_Chris ~ a.k.a. 'Fensta'_


	6. Lon Lon Ranch

"And the Hero shall walk among us, unknown and unknowing of the trials ahead. He will encounter friendship and hostility, charity and employment, and all the time he shall be evolving, ever evolving, into the man that he shall need to be to face the darkness."

_Book of Farore, 1:04:23_

* * *

><p>It was still dark when Link woke up. The heavy woollen drape that covered the single window did little to mask the sound of the rain that was still falling torrentially outside, and as Link sat up he was quick to note the chill in the air that always came with storms, even at the height of summer.<p>

It was a few days since they had arrived at what Link now knew to call 'Lon Lon' ranch. The inhabitants, which numbered about twenty or so, had proudly proclaimed that it was the best ranch in all of Hyrule, and the milk produced by the Lon Lon's small herd of dairy cattle was so good that it was supposedly famed across the land for having powerful healing properties. Link was happy to concede that the milk was the best he'd ever tasted, and was certainly refreshing, but world famous? And healing properties? He thought he'd reserve judgement on that.

Pushing off the knitted blanket that had kept him warm through the night, he stood and walked over to where Saria was still sleeping. She looked peaceful, he thought, although her pale and clammy skin betrayed the fact that she was quite unwell. The few times that Saria had woken in the few days they'd been there she had been dazed and largely incoherent, and it was starting to worry Link. They'd managed to get food and drink into her often enough that Lon Lon's resident veterinarian, Lionel, a rather tall and stick thin fellow with a serious demeanour and a big red nose, believed she was in no immediate danger. Link hoped he was as good with people as he was with horses.

There was a shuffling noise at the door and Link looked around just in time to see it push open an inch. There was an eyeball in the gap, a blue one, although Link could have guessed who it was without that clue.

Seeing that she'd been spotted, the door opened more fully and in stepped a short girl in a simple white cotton dress, the hem of which was kept constantly muddy by her trampling around the ranch. She had long scarlet hair, deep blue eyes, and a complexion that clearly showed that she spent the majority of her time outside in the sun. Her name was Malon and she happened to be the ranch owner's daughter, which Link had discovered made her very important. She was almost, Link would reflect later on in life, Lon Lon's self-appointed queen bee.

'Good morning, Fairy Boy.' she whispered, wary of Saria's delicate state, although the wide grin on her face, coupled with the teasing nickname she'd christened him with the morning immediately after their arrival, told him that she was in a good mood. Despite the fact that he wasn't happy with the nickname, he'd learnt very quickly that Malon in a good mood was infinitely preferable to Malon in a bad mood, and therefore didn't object.

'Morning, Malon.' he said instead, 'You're up early.'

Malon snorted softly, finding the comment amusing. 'Morning? It's almost midday, you lazybones!'

To prove her point she moved over to the drape covering the window and pulled it aside. Behind were two wooden shutters, closed to the weather and therefore wet from the rain, but two small heart-shaped holes cut decoratively into the wood let enough light in that Link became suddenly fearful that it might wake up Saria. When Malon opened the shutters and ice-cold wind flooded in alongside the light, he almost threw something at the girl.

'What do you think you're doing!' he hissed, grabbing the blanket from his own cot to cover Saria with. 'She's sick! We've got to keep her warm!'

Malon shrugged. 'The fresh air will do her good.' she giggled. 'Surely you would know that, Fairy Boy, coming from the forest and all.' Link could tell from the tone of her voice that she didn't quite believe that story, despite it being the truth. In fact, Link had a growing suspicion that Malon was under the impression in that Saria and he were from Castle Town, and had simply gotten lost.

'My name is 'Link'!' he ground out through his teeth, 'and what I know is that Saria doesn't belong here. She belongs in the forest with the rest of the Kokiri.'

Looking down at his friend, he knew he was right. Her being out of the forest may well have caused her illness, especially considering the legends of what happened to Kokiri when they left their home, but he wasn't ready to jump to that conclusion quite yet, particularly when he was feeling no ill effects himself. Despite that, he was absolutely convinced that her recovery would be much swifter once she was back amongst the life that was so abundant in the forest. Now if only the storm would abate...

'Kokiri?' Malon said slowly, sounding out the word. 'But, that's what you are too, isn't it? One of the forest children?' she turned from the window and considered him. 'I've heard of you, you know. My mother, she used to tell me stories about the fairy kids, who lived in the forbidden forests of Hyrule, and stayed kids forever. I used to want to be one too... playing all day, no work to do, for ever and ever.'

Despite the fact that Link had only known her a few days, he didn't think that sounded very much like Malon. 'But you don't now?'

'Dunno.' she replied, 'Sometimes, I suppose I still do. You know, when dad and Ingo have one of their fights...' she went silent for a moment, and Link knew she was thinking of an argument that had happened in one of the stables the day before. Link had heard the shouting from the main house, even over the sound of the rain. 'But most of the time I think it sounds a little... boring.' she shrugged, 'Plus, there are no horses in the forest, and that would be terrible!'

Link smiled. That was true enough, and he could easily believe that a kid like Malon, who adored horses and spent every living moment either riding horses, caring for horses or talking about them, would find the forest a boring place, even though he knew it to be anything but that.

'What about you, _Link_.' she replied, deliberately stressing his name to make sure he noticed her using it. 'Do you miss it? The forest, I mean.'

Link considered. It hadn't been a week yet since they'd left the forest, and he found that was too brief a time to decide if he missed it, especially when he found everything and everyone he came across so alien and interesting. Even in the confines of the ranch, there were so many things to see! From the aforementioned horses and their foals, to the big people that took care of them, the wide open spaces of the plains around them, to the wood and stone buildings that seemed both massive and constricting at the same time. The more Link discovered about the world, the more he liked it, and yet he couldn't help but feel a pang of an unidentifiable emotion when he thought of his little house in the forest. Was it homesickness?

'A little, maybe.' he said eventually, 'But I don't expect I'll be out of the forest for long. We're only here to deliver a st...er... an item to Hyrule Castle, then we'll be going straight back to the Lost Forest.' Link looked out at the driving rain, which was mercifully falling across the window and not through it. 'Only if the weather lets up though.'

Malon agreed. 'Dad's got business in Castle Town this week, I think he's got a delivery for the Castle too, but he says he won't go until the storm passes. Says only fools choose to go out on the plains when you can't see your hand in front of your face.'

'It's not _that_ bad!' Link said, peering out at the rain. 'I can see the stables from here, and that has to be thirty feet away at least!'

Malon laughed. 'It's just an expression, silly! You're weird. Anyway, come grab some breakfast before Grandma throws it away.'

Link had met 'Grandma' the first morning he'd woken. A large, plump woman who scuttled about with the use of a wooden cane, she looked after the kitchen at Lon Lon. Link had quickly come to the opinion that much of Salon's sharpness and forwardness had been inherited from this woman, although there was little in their physical features that made him think that they were actually related. In fact, seeing as everyone on the ranch called her 'Grandma', Link had come to the conclusion that she wasn't actually related by blood to anyone on the ranch at all, but it was more an honorary title. She was, after all, the one who kept their stomachs full.

Leaving Saria in peace, Malon escorted Link through the main house, from the small room at the top that Saria and he had been lodged in, down to a large room on the ground floor that served as both the social and mealtime hub of the ranch. Large enough to hold two old oaken tables that could easily seat ten people apiece, the entire population of the ranch, along with a couple of the ranch's more brazen cuccos, tended to congregate all together during breakfast and dinner. With breakfast being at an ungodly hour before the sun had risen, Link hadn't managed to attend one yet, but he'd rather enjoyed the dinners, even if most of the rather gruff ranch workers enjoyed asking him about the 'dress' that he was wearing. He'd learnt that it was mostly in good humour.

Mostly.

'You know where the leftovers are put by now,' Malon declared with another grin. Link gathered that he was being made fun of again, this time for his inability to get up before the sun, which to his mind wasn't a disability at all, and he said so.

'Whatever you say, Fairy Boy.' Malon replied, 'but one day you'll find there are no leftovers, and then you'll be sorry you didn't get up at a normal time.'

Link didn't miss the subtle threat in her words.

Malon had eaten at the 'proper' time, so Link sat by himself to pick at the collection of cold sausages, bacon and toast that had been left from breakfast hours earlier. Malon, for her part, kept him company by doing odd jobs around the room until he was finished. Living on a ranch, she told him proudly, wasn't an easy life. Everybody had to pull their weight, and that meant that even Malon had to do her fair share, like mucking out stables, milking cows and cleaning anything that needed cleaning. Link had found that out the hard way, and had been inducted into the role of ranch dogsbody over the past couple of days, doing all the jobs that everybody else didn't want to do. Mostly this involved doing the dirty jobs, or jobs that involved going out into the driving rain, but he'd also learnt lots about caring for horses; animals that he'd seen only rarely when humans had ridden into the forest and gotten hopelessly lost. Mostly he thought it a fair trade off.

He was trying to explain this lack of experience with horses to Malon, who honestly couldn't imagine life without them, when her father, Talon, strolled into the room with a cucco under each of his massive arms. He was a large bruiser of a man, with arms the size of tree trunks and a barrel chest which Link estimated was larger than most barrels. Despite that, his age was starting to catch up with him and not only was his waistline starting to expand, but his hair was visibly thinned on top, although he managed to maintain a meaty moustache beneath his rather bulbous red nose. The owner of the ranch, he had an easy way of dealing with his underlings that bordered on friendship, although Link had noticed that the man spent more time with his cuccos than helping out with the horses or cows that made the ranch's money. Link had gotten the impression that whilst his workers liked the man well enough, most didn't entirely respect Talon's ability to run the ranch by himself, and instead they tended to follow the instructions of the Horse Master, a man by the name of Ingo. It was the cause of more than a few arguments between the owner and his lieutenant, although being the owner of the ranch, Talon often came out on top.

Today however, Talon appeared to have done some rather strenuous work as he appeared to be breathing heavily, was muddy up to his knees and appeared to be quite wet as he approached his daughter and his newest lodger.

'Malon, glad I found you.' he said, thrusting one of the damp cuccos into his daughter's arms. It clucked unhappily, but didn't attempt to flap away. 'The cuccos have gotten out again.' he explained, 'I've asked some of the boys to round them up, but they're collecting more mud than cuccos. You've always been good at chasing them; go show them how it's done. You too, Link.' he said shoving the other cucco into his arms. 'Show me what you can do and maybe I'll think about letting you stay on for the rest of the summer. You'd like that, I'll bet.'

Link didn't reply, but then, Talon didn't wait for a response as he immediately disappeared through a doorway towards his living quarters. Instead, Link fought for a second to control his own cucco as it attempted to flap after it's master, before following Malon out towards the door her father had appeared from. He wasn't sure, but Link thought he might have seen a hastily hidden grin on Malon's face.

It was still raining hard. Puddles of dirty brown water lay everywhere around the bare earthen clearings and paths of the ranch, whilst more water was ever hastening to add to the wetness either directly from the sky, or from the torrents running off the various roofs around the ranch. The earth itself seemed to have been transformed into an extremely runny liquid that swallowed Link's foot up to the ankle with his first step, causing the cucco he was holding to cry out in alarm. Malon grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the safety of the tiny dry area just outside the door they had just stepped through. She laughed at him before pointing out where an industrious farm hand had laid pathways using large amounts of hay to help people get from building to building without sinking.

'Silly boy.' she quipped, before dashing off down the narrow hay causeway towards the cucco enclosure. Link attempted to shake off the mud from his boot, failed, and then followed after her, resigned that it was only going to get muddy again anyway.

It was easy enough to find where the cuccos had escaped to, they made enough noise. For some unknown reason, cuccos, despite their hatred of swimming, were never happier than when they could run around in the rain and mud. Knowing this, the farm hands had deliberately shut them all in one of the milking sheds, for fear of loosing one of them to the deadly suction of the mud. And that strategy had worked very well, right up until one unfortunate farm hand had been set upon by, he maintained, every single cucco as he opened the door to the shed to do that morning's milking. They had attacked him and when he stepped out of their line of fire they had all escaped past him.

Link could sympathise. The Kokiri kept a small flock of cuccos, and as a much younger child he had made the mistake of repeatedly poking one with a stick until it turned around and pecked him back. That, he mused, he had probably deserved, but what he hadn't deserved was for every single bird in the flock to make a rush at him, squawking and pecking and battering him with their wings until he'd escaped by diving into the small pool next to the general store. Ever since then, he'd harboured a grudging respect for the feathery fiends, although thankfully it hadn't developed into a full-blown phobia; he simple liked eggs too much.

Then again, he thought, looking at the state of both the farm hands and the cuccos which were all now covered head-to-toe in mud, it would have made a great excuse...

'Come on,' Malon said, readjusting the hold she had on the cucco she was carrying. Link was wary of her gleeful smile. 'Lets put these back inside and then get stuck in!'

It took them at least half an hour of running, slipping and diving around a muddy courtyard before they'd rounded up the rest of the cuccos. Link, like the other farm hands, was caked with mud. It had gotten everywhere: inside is boots, his tunic, even inside his hat. The only person who seemed to have come away from the fray with any semblance of being even half-clean was Malon, although Link found it hard to explain as she had caught more cuccos than anyone else.

'Muddy pup!' Malon exclaimed gleefully when she and Link finally returned to the main house. They were standing just outside, knowing that they'd pay dearly if they trod mud inside.

Link took off his hat and squeezed it, releasing a torrent of water to fall over his muddy boots. It failed to wash them clean of any of the mud like he hoped, and instead simply confirmed that he'd lost sensation in his toes.

Malon was hiking up her dress to untie her boots, and Link went to follow suit when a loud voice stopped him dead.

'Boy!' said the voice, and Link recognised it immediately. He turned to see a tall man in a grubby set of white overalls trudge towards him with a bucket in one hand and a pitchfork in the other. Like Talon, the man had a moustache the size of a large rodent beneath a bulbous nose, along with the beginnings of a receding hairline, but that's where the similarities ended. Whilst Talon always exuded a serene sense of friendliness, even if that meant he was a bit soft on his labourers, Ingo was as strict and uncordial a person that Link yet had come across in this strange new world.

Not that it was a necessarily bad thing. Talon might have owned Lon Lon ranch, but Ingo was the force that kept it going so successfully. By trade Ingo was a Horse Master; a man who had dedicated his life to breeding and training horses, but at Lon Lon he had overstepped his job description and had taken charge of nearly every aspect of maintaining the ranch. He was the one who bought in feed for all the animals, the one who organised the ranch hands into work parties, and the one who oversaw work around the ranch in every department from simple maintenance to animal husbandry. Quite simply, without Ingo, Lon Lon ranch would fall apart within weeks, and everyone knew it.

'Nice to finally see you out of bed, boy!' Ingo growled, ducking under the small amount of cover from the rain that Malon and Link had found in the lee of the building. 'I wouldn't take those boots off quite yet though, the grey mare's stall needs mucking out.'

Malon scowled at the man, a look that was clearly a challenge for Ingo to try and give her a job too, but the man was wise to her game and declined to even look at her directly. As Talon's daughter and only child, Malon was effectively the heiress to Lon Lon and therefore technically outranked Ingo. Link had noticed the animosity between the pair before then, including the way that they dealt with it – mostly by ignoring each other as best they could.

'Ingo isn't a bad man,' Malon had confided to Link the day before, 'and me and Dad owe him a lot. But it doesn't mean I have to like him!' As far as Link could tell from speaking with the ranch hands, that's how most the people thought of Ingo.

'When you're finished, you can help Alfe refresh the hay in the byre.' he concluded, still speaking to Link. 'Shouldn't take you too long.' He then, without a word to Malon, walked back into the rain and disappeared around the corner of a nearby shed, his bucket ever filling up with water.

Link sighed, retied the one lace he had managed to loosen, and trudged off in the opposite direction towards the stables. He went to shout a goodbye to Malon over his shoulder when he realised she was walking beside him.

'Oh, I'm not coming to help.' she said cheerfully at Link's hopeful gaze, and that's all she would say, despite further prompting.

The stables were a reasonable way from the farmhouse, so the pair ended up dashing between buildings to keep out of the rain, but when they got there they found the building warm and dry, if a little muddy where people had been walking in and out over the past few days.

Despite her words, Malon did help Link move the grey mare out of her stall and into a spare one nearby. Named Cloud, she was one of the smaller mares at Lon Lon, with a docile nature, but to an inexperienced handler like Link she was still intimidatingly creature who was twice as tall as his 9 year old form, and many times his bodyweight.

With the stall empty of its resident, Link set about gathering picking out the dirty straw bedding from the clean with a pitchfork that was kept inside the stable. He was almost finished dumping the dirty bedding into a nearby wheelbarrow when Malon reappeared. At first Link thought she'd just come to watch him work, or maybe to go back on her earlier vow and help him out anyway, but then he heard a soft snort coming from her direction that was distinctly neither human nor from the horses in the surrounding stalls. He looked up from his task to clap eyes on a beautiful doe-eyed filly the colour of a fiery sunset, with a pure white blaze that connected to a fledgling mane. She was, quite simply, the most beautiful thing that Link had ever clapped his eyes on.

'I want you to meet someone.' Malon said, smiling serenely at the effect the little horse had on her new friend. 'Her name is Epona, and she's my best friend in the entire world.' Epona, responding to her soft voice, nuzzled Malon's neck, which was about at her head height. Malon giggled with pleasure.

'Ha ha! Stop it!' she squealed, pushing Epona's softly snorting muzzle away as it brushed her ear. 'That tickles!' Epona snorted again in response and shook her head happily.

'Anyway,' continued Malon when she'd recovered, 'Epona, I want you to meet Link. He's going to be our new friend.' She smiled sweetly at Link when she said this, and although Link new it was entirely possible that when he left Lon Lon he'd probably never see the girl again, he couldn't help but smile back at the sentiment. He reached out a hand to stroke Epona's long nose, but she flinched away. Link tried again and Epona retreated to the other end of the stables, her ears pinned back agitatedly.

Malon seemed surprised, and perhaps a little disappointed too. 'Aww. It seems like Epona is afraid of you, fairy boy...'

Link shrugged. 'I'm more used to fending animals off than being friendly to them.' he admitted. 'There aren't many things in the forest you'd want to pet.' All the same, he found himself feeling a little empty inside at Epona's distrust.

Further encouragement from Malon couldn't change Epona's mind about Link, so she took her back to her stable and brushed her until the little horse calmed down. Meanwhile Link finished cleaning out the stall and set about gathering in some clean hay. By the time he'd finished that, Malon was free to help him urge a slightly anxious Cloud back into her stall.

'Just not your day with horses, is it, Link.' Malon quipped as Cloud stamped the ground nervously whenever Link would approach her. In the end, Malon did it by herself, but promised never to let Ingo know.

The pair walked over to the cow shed, and were quite surprised when they stepped out of the stables and didn't have to make a run for the next building. The rain, which had been falling constantly for three days, had finally stopped.

'Thank Nayru for that.' Malon said under her breath. 'Never did like being cooped up inside much.'

Link had mixed emotions. 'It means that Saria and I can leave.' he said matter of factly, and although his concern for Saria was pressing, he was sorry to think that he would be leaving Lon Lon. He surprised himself by realising that he had really enjoyed it here, even if Ingo gave him all the bad jobs.

'I'll miss you.' Malon said softly, and Link was forced to realise that Malon had been a large part of why his time at Lon Lon had been so enjoyable, as short has it had been. She threaded her hand into his and they stayed like that until they entered the cow shed where, owing to the presence of Alfe, she abruptly dropped it and excused herself. Link watched her go, slightly confused in her actions, but Alfe soon noticed his presence and employed him enough that Link was suitably distracted.

They were finished in short order, especially now that they were able to retrieve straw from the hay barn without having to run from cover to cover to keep it dry. By the time they'd completed the job, parts of the sky had cleared enough that patches of blue to shine through the murky dark clouds that still threatened in places.

'Should be dry t'morra.' Alfe said happily as he surveyed high clouds through the gaps. He pointed a couple out to Link and explained that their presence told him that they were due a period of dry clear weather. 'Be warmer too, f'sure. None of this horrible darkness that we've bin' havin'. Link was buoyed by the news of fine weather, and despite the fact that he knew it meant he was leaving, he found himself smiling on the return to the main house.

That smile didn't last long. As they came within sight of the house they also came within earshot of an argument taking place within. Before they could even identify the individual voices involved they had guessed; Talon and Ingo.

'Best leave 'em to it.' Alfe said with a sigh. If Link didn't already know that this was a regular occurrence, he might have guessed from ranch hand's lack of reaction to it. 'It's mostly harmless,' he explained, 'but it's never a good idea t' get between them. Just cause trouble for yerself. Hey. Where yeh going?'

His question was well deserved, for as Alfe had veered off towards the smaller building where the ranch hands were housed, Link had maintained his course and was heading directly for the main house. 'Suit yerself!' Alfe called at Link's back, but the boy wasn't listening. Alfe shrugged and hurried off, keen not to be in the area if and when Link got caught in the crossfire.

Link, for his part, had only not responded to Alfe because he was straining to make out the words of the argument within the house. Breaking into a jog he closed the gap quickly and pressed himself against the wall beside a window that had mercifully been left open to take advantage of the newly brightened weather. He peaked a look through to see Talon and Ingo standing at either ends of one of the large wooden tables in the eating hall. Ingo looked the angrier of the two, his face being a deep purple colour and his hand clenched into tight balls, but Talon's reddened face wasn't far behind, and his crossed arms made his bulk seem three times as massive as Link had ever seen it. In comparison, it seemed like he could snap Ingo like a twig.

Link didn't blame the Horse Master for keeping the solid wooden table between them.

'...this is my ranch, it's my milk,' Talon was saying, albeit rather loudly, 'and if I want to make the delivery myself, I will!'

Ingo responded by, if it was possible, going even more purple in the face. 'Last time you went to Castle Town, you ended up staying for a month and selling the horse you took to pay your bar bill!'

'It was my horse to sell!' Talon shot back, although by the shift in his stance, Link could tell that he was uncomfortable discussing that particular subject. 'And you know that I've promised Malon that it won't happen again.'

'Bah!' Ingo scoffed, 'You're quick to promise the world to a nine year old, and she believes you because she knows no better. But I know you, Talon! You take our wares to Castle Town and it will be a miracle if you come back with more rupees than you set out with.'

'They're _my_ wares, Ingo!' Talon exploded in response, 'You'll do well to remember that!' There was a threat in his words, but if Ingo noticed them, he didn't seem to care.

'Fine!' he shouted, 'Do what you like, but don't expect me to be here when you get back! Let's see how this Din forsaken place copes without me!' And with that he stormed out.

Link realised with only seconds to spare that Ingo was probably heading towards his room in the rancher's housing, and that if Link didn't move he would be caught listening in at the window. He briefly thought about jumping through the window itself, but then he would be caught by Talon, so he squeezed between two barrels of water that sat a little further down the wall and were little bigger than himself. It was a bad fit, and one of link's boots stuck out between the barrels, but Link heard Ingo's heavy breathing and the squelching steps as he passed by his hiding place without pausing. Link realised later than he'd probably been saved by the mud caked on his boot, camouflaging it against the still-soggy ground.

Link had never been so happy to be muddy.

* * *

><p><em>A bit of a wait, and I apologise, but I've been exploring the world of Skyward Sword, and very interesting it is too! Still, practically finished now, so it shouldn't slow me down much more. Brings up some very interesting questions about the overarching timeline of the Zelda series. I'm very much looking forward to finishing it and extrapolating a possible future scenario from it.<em>

_You may have noticed that the story's name has changed from **'The Deku Project: Link's Awakening'** to **'The Ocarina Project: Link's Awakening'**. This is because people were apparently getting confused as to which particular Zelda story this fic pertained. I'm hoping that this change will help make it more clear that this is an Ocarina of Time fic, and not a Link's Awakening fic. I know that the obvious way to stop this confusion is to remove 'Link's Awakening' from the title, but I'm going to be Britishly stubborn about keeping it there. Hopefully it will make more sense in time. I hope this change in name didn't/won't cause too much confusion._

_Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter, and I'll see you all next time in Castle Town! Maybe we'll even get a glance of the Princess!_

_Chris_


End file.
